Gifting Strategies for the Charitably Minded!
ROBARE & JONES ON THE MARKETS
The S&P 500 ended the week down 0.4% which was the market's second consecutive down week with most investors assuming the slight down trend has come from inflation concerns. However the market still remains up about 11% on the year.
Energy and industrials had the largest percentage drops this week, down 2.8% and 1.7%, respectively. On the upside, real estate had the largest percentage increase of the week up 0.9% followed by a 0.7% rise in health care.
The drop in the energy sector came amid concerns about inflation and reports that Iran and the US were nearing a nuclear agreement that would lift sanctions on Iran's oil production.
Since April, we’ve seen a weaker-than-expected employment report and higher-than-expected inflation data. While one month does not establish a trend, investors, economists, and pundits will be watching economic data releases closely for clues about economic recovery.
Let's take a look at the benchmarks from this past week!
Gifting Bunching Tax Strategy
In 2017 the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) was put into motion raising the standard deduction for each household significantly. From this, many households were incentivized to utilize the standard deduction instead of the itemized tax deduction.
Some of the most common itemized tax deductions each year are sales tax, state/local tax, mortgage interest, and charitable giving. Since many households were disincentivized to use the itemized deduction which in result had a negative impact on the amount of donations made to 501(c) organizations each year.
In 2016 there was a report $1.047 trillion in donations made to charitable organizations whereas the following years in 2018 there was only $427 billion in donations made to charitable organization (referenced by nccs.urban.org).
One of the tax strategies to utilize is when someone that is charitable minded bunches multiple years of donations into one year to help get them over the standard deduction. This strategy is one that we have been able to utilize through Fidelity Donor Advised accounts. Contributions can be made into a Donor Advised account with cash, stock, mutual funds, bonds, etc. and would help offset any unrealized capital gains.
If you’d like more information on maximizing your tax benefits for your favorite organizations, contact us below for more information!
Are you charitably minded?
