ziggy29
Moderator Emeritus
This is something I've been thinking about a lot more recently for tax purposes.
We never itemize, seeing as we have a small, low-value home owned free and clear (no mortgage interest deduction, low property taxes) and no state income tax. Even after adding in all of our charitable contributions for the year, it's not enough (usually) to itemize and "write off" our donations.
Seems really tax inefficient. I've kicked around the idea of opening a charitable gift account with (say) $10-20K right off the bat once my wife starts her new career in ministry. That would almost all be deductible in the year it was contributed, and then I'd use that trust to periodically send money to the charities we support as well as to our church. At the same time I'd be saving more money in a taxable account or savings, planning to "reload" the trust in a later year when there's enough to produce real tax savings.
Does anyone have experience with these? Any particularly good ones or bad ones to stay away from? I'm familiar with the one Schwab runs, seeing as I'm already a Schwab client, and I've seen the Vanguard version which seems to have a very similar fee structure (though Vanguard's fund options have slightly lower fees).
Any other gotchas to wonder about? (And yes, I know they are irrevocable.)
I'm just thinking that it's time we let our donations go a little farther, because I've not been able to deduct one cent of them since we moved into a paid-for house.
We never itemize, seeing as we have a small, low-value home owned free and clear (no mortgage interest deduction, low property taxes) and no state income tax. Even after adding in all of our charitable contributions for the year, it's not enough (usually) to itemize and "write off" our donations.
Seems really tax inefficient. I've kicked around the idea of opening a charitable gift account with (say) $10-20K right off the bat once my wife starts her new career in ministry. That would almost all be deductible in the year it was contributed, and then I'd use that trust to periodically send money to the charities we support as well as to our church. At the same time I'd be saving more money in a taxable account or savings, planning to "reload" the trust in a later year when there's enough to produce real tax savings.
Does anyone have experience with these? Any particularly good ones or bad ones to stay away from? I'm familiar with the one Schwab runs, seeing as I'm already a Schwab client, and I've seen the Vanguard version which seems to have a very similar fee structure (though Vanguard's fund options have slightly lower fees).
Any other gotchas to wonder about? (And yes, I know they are irrevocable.)
I'm just thinking that it's time we let our donations go a little farther, because I've not been able to deduct one cent of them since we moved into a paid-for house.
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