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Financial Planning > Charitable Giving

The 8 Best Year-End Charitable Giving Strategies for 2022

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What You Need to Know

  • Americans' support for charitable causes remains strong overall in 2022, despite the economy.
  • Many people are donating more to counter the effects of inflation on their favorite charities.
  • Tax-smart giving strategies can help create clarity, encourage generosity and foster a better relationship with your clients.

As the end of 2022 approaches, many Americans are considering their charitable commitments. Despite a bear market and inflation, American support for charitable causes, overall, remains strong. Many donors plan to increase their year-end donations to counter inflation’s effects on their favorite charities. Others might be pondering their charitable giving strategy but still want to give.

In either case, knowing about purposeful and tax-smart giving strategies can help create clarity, encourage more generosity and foster a better relationship with your clients. Here are Charityvest’s eight favorite year-end charitable giving strategies for 2022:

1. Donate Appreciated Assets

Donating long-term appreciated stocks, bonds, mutual funds and even complex assets directly to an eligible charity can increase tax savings significantly. Not only does the donor get a tax deduction for the full fair market value of the asset on the date of donation, but they also avoid paying capital gains tax on any gain associated with the asset’s growth. If you or your clients give to charity and have long-term appreciated assets, this is the No. 1 strategy to use.

In light of these advantages, there are two specific ways this strategy might be used in 2022.

First, if you’re rebalancing a client’s investments portfolio, consider donating some of the most appreciated positions to charity in that process to offset the capital gains tax impact that will result from the rebalancing activity.

Second, if there are positions you don’t want to change, but you’re concerned about a potential recession and further market decline, consider using charitable giving to adjust the cost-basis (and future tax treatment) of your or your client’s existing positions. You can donate a position to charity, realize the tax advantages, and immediately repurchase the position, lowering the cost-basis. If the market value decreases in the future, you may have the opportunity to deduct losses on that investment, whereas if it’s currently appreciated, it’s less probable you will have the opportunity to do so.

2. Use a Donor-Advised Fund

Donor-advised funds like Charityvest streamline giving on one tax-receipt, plus offer the flexibility to spread out donations over multiple years. They allow you or your clients to make tax-deductible contributions all in one tax year — to one place — and then recommend grants from the fund to charities over time. This is especially powerful when donating appreciated assets.

3. ‘Bunch’ Two (or More) Years of Contributions Into 2022

If you or your client plan to make tax-deductible donations in 2022 and 2023, bunching both years’ donations into the 2022 tax year can increase total tax deductions by taking a large, itemized deduction in 2022 and the standard deduction in 2023. Doing so maximizes total tax deductions over the two-year period. This strategy works if multiple years of charitable contributions and other tax deductions exceed the standard deduction amount. A donor-advised fund makes this easy and allows you to spread out your support for charities over time.

4. Review the Previous 12 Months of Giving

Take inventory of all previous charitable giving over the past 12 months. This helps you or your clients think about which charitable gifts are inspiring them and why/why not. This can set the stage for more fulfilling giving going forward.

5. Utilize State Tax Credits for Giving

Many states offer special tax credits for donating to charity, allowing donors to reduce their state tax liabilities, subject to qualifications. Figure out what your state offers and put the cash on hand to work to reduce your tax bill.

6. Utilize Workplace Matching Programs

Many companies offer matching programs for tax-deductible donations to charity, often up to a capped amount. Make sure you are maxing these out if you have the cashflow as they expire each year, and without them you are leaving free money on the table.

7. Sell Depreciated Securities and Donate From That Cash

If you or your clients have stocks, bonds or mutual funds that were purchased at a higher price than the current market value, selling them and donating the cash proceeds to an eligible charity can bring tax advantages. You can use capital losses to offset any tax liability due from gains on other securities and may also be able deduct net capital losses on income taxes. Finally, you can use cash from the sale to donate to charity and generate an income tax deduction from the donation.

8. Set a Giving Goal for Next Year

Giving goals have been shown to help people give more. Setting a giving goal will help you and your clients proactively integrate giving into financial plans ahead of time and create freedom to focus on the joy of partnering with organizations to make an impact.

By taking these purposeful approaches to year-end giving in 2022, you and your clients can cultivate generosity while saving wisely on your taxes. That’s a win-win.


Stephen Kump is co-founder and CEO of Charityvest, a fintech company that helps advisors facilitate clients’ charitable giving while maintaining asset custody and investment flexibility.


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