Your charitable acts are not only rewarded with that ‘do-good’ feeling, but could also reward you with a significant tax benefit. Find out the rules and options for charitable giving, as well as some common mistakes people often make. Joe and Al discuss donor advised funds, gifting directly from your IRA, donating stocks and much more in this episode of “Your Money, Your Wealth.”
Important Points:
0:52 “Do you understand that if you plan a gift to a charity, the IRS will actually forgive a tax?”
2:26 “A lot of people don’t realize there are several strategies that can make a lot of sense in terms of actually helping you out tax-wise.”
3:41 “When it comes to volunteering, first of all you cannot deduct your volunteer time. That’s not deductible, but here’s what you can deduct: your travel and mileage, supplies that you purchased directly for charity or certain fundraising expenses – those can be deductible as well.”
4:35 “Some people give cash – that’s not the best way to go. You’re better off writing a check or doing an online donation because you have proof of the donation.”
5:57 “Most charities will allow you to donate stocks (and neither you nor the charity pays taxes on it).”
11:04 “I’ve been looking at ETFs [exchange traded funds] and mutual funds, and I’m not quite sure where to invest. Can you help me decide where the best place is to put my money?”
11:41 “I like ETFs quite a bit because they’re very transparent, they’re very cheap and they’re very tax-efficient – there’s not a lot of trading that goes on.”
12:33 “Those that do active mutual funds over the long term tend to earn the market return minus their cost so you’re better off with an ETF.”
12:45 “There is a way to donate directly right out of your IRA; this is relatively new.”
14:55 “Social Security is one of those things where if you have less income, less is taxed.”
16:06 “For those of you looking for additional income, there’s something called a gift annuity.”
18:16 “[True or false?] One drawback to a donor advised fund is that you have to know which charities you want to receive the money when you open the fund.”
24:10 “A donor advised fund would be great if you don’t know exactly what charities you want to give to now but you want to give out slowly over time…donor advised funds do have annual expenses, about a half a percent, but it gives you a lot more flexibility in the future.”
