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Estate planning: Your kids … and your community

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Estate planning: Your kids … and your community

As you contemplate your legacy and adjust your estate plan over the years, it’s natural to focus on your children and family as the primary beneficiaries in your will and trust. If you’re like an increasing number of charitably-minded individuals, though, you might find that your perspectives about what exactly it means to leave a legacy are expanding beyond your next of kin. Your community is on your mind and in your heart, and you’re interested in ways you can support and improve the quality of life for people in the region we call home.

If you’re intrigued, you are not alone! Indeed, many philanthropic individuals are broadening their estate plan beneficiaries to prominently include their community or favorite cause, right alongside children and grandchildren. The team at The Community Foundation would be honored to discuss the ways we can help. Here are three options for funds you can establish with The Community Foundation to benefit our community in your overall philanthropy and estate plan:

 

Unrestricted fund

Major advantages of The Community Foundation include its perpetual structure, community-based governance, and commitment to addressing needs as they change. An unrestricted fund allows you and your family to provide support that evolves over time as priorities in the region shift. The Community Foundation’s mission is to thoroughly understand the community and improve lives within it. The Community Foundation’s board and professional staff conduct ongoing, extensive research about the needs of the community and the nonprofit programs that are addressing those needs. Establishing an unrestricted fund means you are investing in The Community Foundation to support programs that are addressing the community’s most pressing needs as well as needs that can’t be identified until the future.

 

Field-of-interest fund

A field of interest fund is an ideal way to target your giving to specific areas of community need (such as education, health, environment, or the arts). Your field of interest fund at The Community Foundation establishes parameters for grant making according to your wishes. The Community Foundation’s staff follows these parameters and uses its research and expertise to make grants that align with your intentions. Your fund can continue beyond your lifetime and for multiple generations, consistently providing grants to support your area of interest according to the terms you established when you first created the fund.

 

Designated fund

A designated fund at The Community Foundation can help you secure your favorite organization’s financial future so that its mission continues, uninterrupted, even in the face of challenges. You can set up multiple designated funds if you’d like to support more than one organization. You can even set up a designated fund to support a governmental unit, such as the parks department. A designated fund allows you to decide on the timing of the distributions from the fund, such as during the organization’s capital campaign or to support a specific program or initiative. You can serve as an advisor to the fund to recommend the timing and amount of grants to the supported organization, or you can appoint the board of directors of The Community Foundation to carry out this function according to your wishes.

And here’s a bonus! If you plan to give to an unrestricted fund, designated fund, or field-of-interest fund at The Community Foundation during your lifetime, and you’re over the age of 70 1/2, you can direct up to $105,000 each year from your IRA to the fund. This is called a “Qualified Charitable Distribution,” or “QCD.” Not only do QCD transfers count toward satisfying your Required Minimum Distributions if you’ve reached that age threshold, but you also avoid the income tax on those funds. Furthermore, the assets distributed through a QCD are no longer part of your estate upon your death, so you can avoid estate taxes, too.

 

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

Four FAQs to help you establish an endowment

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Four FAQs to help you establish an endowment or Forever Fund

Many community-minded individuals have served on the boards of directors of charitable organizations in our region. If you’ve served on a charity’s board (or several!), you are no doubt familiar with the concept of an endowment. Many charities establish endowment funds and reserve funds at The Community Foundation to help ensure that their missions stay strong during economic downturns and periods of increased community need.

What you might be less familiar with, however, is an endowment fund established at The Community Foundation by an individual or family. Every year, the team at The Community Foundation works with people like you to establish endowment funds to support the needs of our region in perpetuity.

Here are answers to four frequently-asked questions about setting up an endowment fund.

 

Why does The Community Foundation offer endowment funds (Forever Funds) to individuals and families?

The Community Foundation serves as the hub of philanthropy for many families in our community. We connect donors like you to community needs you care about, and this includes offering the opportunity to make a charitable investment that supports a range of community needs now and in the decades ahead–needs that cannot be predicted. That’s the purpose of an endowment: to provide a steady stream of dollars, far into the future, to meet community needs as they arise.

 

How does an “endowment” work?

“Endowment” is the word often used to refer to a designated pool of assets that are invested by The Community Foundation and tracked separately such that a modest portion (usually based on a percentage) of the assets are distributed each year to charitable causes, and the rest of the assets remain invested to grow in perpetuity. This growth, in turn, helps the endowment provide even more support each year to the causes for which it was established. The Community Foundation team is experienced at managing the accounting, investment, and distribution aspects of endowment funds.

 

How can I stay involved with my endowment fund after it’s established?

First and foremost, you can name the endowment fund anything you want, such as the “Smith Family Endowment Fund,” or something more anonymous such as the “Endowment Fund for Our Future.” In addition, our team is happy to keep you informed about the positive change in the community that is occurring thanks to the distributions from the endowment fund you’ve established. We can continue to keep your children and grandchildren informed, too, beyond your lifetime. In this way, your legacy continues through the generations.

 

Who decides where the endowment distributions go each year?

The Community Foundation is itself a permanent institution. Our board and staff are committed to keeping a finger on the pulse of the region’s greatest needs and maintaining a deep knowledge of the charitable organizations that are meeting these needs every day. This is The Community Foundation’s mission in perpetuity. The Community Foundation’s team is made up of dedicated and knowledgeable professionals who understand our community and build ongoing personal relationships with the people working at the region’s charitable organizations. The Community Foundation team recommends distributions from your endowment, and our independent board of directors reviews and approves these distributions to ensure that they fulfill your charitable goals for establishing the endowment in the first place.

 

What does it take to establish an endowment fund?

Setting up an endowment or Forever fund is as easy as setting up any other type of fund at The Community Foundation. Our team will prepare simple paperwork capturing the name of the endowment fund and any areas of interest you’d like to support. Then, you can transfer cash—or, even better for tax purposes, you can transfer appreciated assets such as stock or real estate. You’ll be eligible for a charitable tax deduction in the year you make the transfer to establish the fund. You can make future transfers to your endowment fund each year, too, to achieve your tax and estate planning goals. Our team is also happy to work with you and your advisors to structure a bequest to your endowment fund following your death. We highly recommend considering a bequest in the form of a beneficiary designation on an IRA because of the multiple tax benefits. Related, if you are over 70 ½, making a “Qualified Charitable Distribution” from your IRA directly to your endowment fund is a very effective charitable planning tool to avoid income tax and also satisfy your Required Minimum Distribution if you’ve reached that age as well.

 

We look forward to working with you to support our community and your favorite charitable causes for generations to come!

 

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

Gifts of appreciated stock: Let the numbers do the talking

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Gifts of appreciated stock: Let the numbers do the talking

No matter how frequently you remind clients to pause before they automatically reach for the checkbook to make their charitable gifts, many clients still give cash! As an attorney, accountant, or financial advisor, you are well aware that giving long-term appreciated assets is often one of the most tax-savvy ways your clients can support their favorite charities. Nevertheless, it’s sometimes hard to convey that message to clients with words that stick. Next time, consider using illustrations to help clients see the benefits.

 

Below are three simple examples* to help you show your clients the benefits of giving appreciated stock.

Sally and Bob Jones give $100,000

Sally and Bob Jones plan to give $100,000 to their donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation to organize all of their giving for the calendar year. Let’s assume Sally and Bob have a combined adjusted gross income of $600,000, which lands them in the 35% federal income tax bracket. If they gave $100,000 in cash to their donor-advised fund, they could realize an income tax savings, potentially, of $35,000.

What if instead of giving cash, Sally and Bob gave highly-appreciated, publicly-traded stock, valued currently at $100,000, to their donor-advised fund. Let’s assume they’ve been holding the stock for many years, and the shares have a cost basis of $20,000. Not only are Sally and Bob eligible for a potential income tax deduction that will save them up to $35,000, but they have also potentially avoided $12,000 of capital gains tax that they would have owed if they’d sold the stock (using a long-term capital gains tax rate of 15%). So, it’s easy to see why Sally and Bob should consider giving highly-appreciated stock instead of cash.

Jenny and Joe Smith give $1 million

Jenny and Joe Smith plan to give $1 million to community causes this year. They’ll do that by adding $500,000 to their donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation, which in turn they will use to support their favorite charities. They’ll also be making a $500,000 gift to an unrestricted fund at The Community Foundation to help address the region’s greatest needs for generations to come. Let’s assume that Jenny and Joe are in the highest federal income tax bracket because they earn multiple seven figures. If they were to give $1 million in cash, they could save, potentially, up to $370,000 in income tax. If they gave publicly-traded stock instead of cash, assuming a $200,000 cost basis in stock valued currently at $1 million, they would still potentially save up to $370,000 in income tax, and they would also potentially avoid $160,000 in capital gains tax (based on a long-term capital gains tax rate of 20%).

Tiffany and Brett Thomas give $5 million

Tiffany and Brett Thomas plan to give a target amount of $5 million to charity as the cornerstone of their overall philanthropy plan. They would like to use publicly-traded stock that they’ve held for many years, valued currently at $5 million. They would love to receive a lifetime income stream from these assets, so that the remaining assets will flow to their fund at The Community Foundation after their deaths. In this case, you’ll explore setting up a charitable remainder trust that pays out an income stream to Tiffany and Brett while they are both living and then to the survivor for the survivor’s lifetime.

Let’s assume that TIffany and Brett are both 55 years old. And let’s assume that the stock has a very low cost basis–just $500,000–because the Thomases have held it for so long. Depending on the IRS’s applicable rates, and assuming a 5% annual payout rate paid at the end of each quarter, here’s an approximate tax result if you worked with The Community Foundation to help Tiffany and Brett establish a charitable remainder trust:

–$1,042,550 approximate potential income tax deduction based on the present value of the gift of the remainder interest to charity

–$4,500,000 in capital gains that may not be subject to tax

–$250,000 in total payments during the first year

–Annual payments of 5% of the value of the assets in the trust, which means the income stream will fluctuate depending on the value of the assets

Following the death of the survivor of Tiffany and Brett, the remaining assets will flow to the Thomas Family Fund at The Community Foundation, which Tiffany and Brett have already established and which, upon their deaths, will split equally into two funds. The first fund will be a donor-advised fund for which their children will serve as advisors, and the second fund is an unrestricted endowment fund to support The Community Foundation’s priority initiatives in perpetuity.

Of course, no client’s circumstances will exactly match those of Sally and Bob, Jenny and Joe, or Tiffany and Brett. The net-net here, though, is that The Community Foundation is happy to discuss the various tax-savvy options for charitable giving in any client situation. Please reach out. We’re here for you! It is our honor to help you serve your charitable clients.

*These examples are for illustration purposes only. Every client’s situation is different, and therefore the tax strategy and tax impact will be different for each client. For example, these illustrations are based on federal income tax rates only, and you’ll need to evaluate, among many other factors, the impact of state taxes.

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

Fund types tailored to your client’s charitable goals

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Fund types tailored to your client’s charitable goals

Just as each of your clients has a unique estate plan and financial plan to meet the client’s particular situation and goals, each of your philanthropic clients needs a unique charitable giving plan. For example, for some clients, giving shares of highly-appreciated stock consistently every year to their fund at The Community Foundation makes the most sense for their charitable goals and their mix of assets. For other clients, leaving a bequest to The Community Foundation to support specific areas of interest is the best fit for the client’s financial situation and community priorities.

The Community Foundation offers charitable giving vehicles to meet a wide range of clients’ needs. In many cases, a single client can benefit from setting up multiple funds of different types.

 

Here’s a quick primer on a few of the most popular fund types.

Donor-advised Fund

A donor-advised fund enables your client to establish a specific account for charitable giving. Your client makes tax-deductible contributions of cash (or, ideally, stock or other highly-appreciated assets) to the fund, and then recommends grants to favorite charities.

Field-of-interest Fund

Clients who want to target their giving to specific areas of community need (such as education, health, environment, or the arts) can set up a field-of-interest fund to establish parameters for grant making under the ongoing guidance and expertise of The Community Foundation’s staff.

Designated Fund

A designated fund allows a client to direct giving to a specific agency or purpose. Over time, The Community Foundation’s staff manages the distributions from the fund according to the terms established by your client.

Agency Fund

An agency fund is similar to a designated fund, except in the case of an agency fund, the source of the initial contribution is the beneficiary nonprofit organization itself, not a donor or donors as is the case with a designated fund. If your client serves on boards of directors of charities, they’d likely be interested in learning more about agency funds. Indeed, if you represent nonprofit organizations and their board members in your practice, it’s helpful to keep in mind that organizations frequently establish agency funds at The Community Foundation to set aside endowment reserves or rainy day funds. The team at The Community Foundation is adept at navigating the specific accounting standards that are unique to this type of arrangement.

Scholarship Fund

Clients can set up funds to support students’ educational pursuits based on the parameters and application requirements they outline with help from the experts at The Community Foundation.

Here’s a pro tip: If you represent clients who are age 70 ½ and older, consider recommending a Qualified Charitable Distribution from a client’s IRA to a fund at The Community Foundation. All of the fund types noted above are eligible recipients, with the exception of only the donor-advised fund.

 

We look forward to working together to discover the type of fund (or funds!) at The Community Foundation that could be a good fit for each client’s unique charitable giving needs.

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

News from Washington: An update on donor-advised funds

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News from Washington: An update on donor-advised funds

The IRS proposed regulations concerning donor-advised funds, issued in November 2023. Certainly these regulations are just “proposed”; it is unclear whether and to what extent they will become final.

If you routinely read financial publications, you may have seen articles about these proposed regulations and speculation about what they might mean for charitable planning. The Community Foundation team will update all of our fund holders as more information becomes available. Indeed, you may have seen the news that the IRS has scheduled public hearings on the proposed donor-advised fund regulations, set for May 6, 2024, so it’s not likely we’ll hear anything definitive for several months.

In the meantime, you might enjoy reading up on donor-advised funds and the many ways they can help grow philanthropy. The Donor Advised Fund Research Collaborative’s recently-released study of donor-advised funds is full of statistics and insights about the popularity of donor-advised funds and how they help grow philanthropy.

We’ll keep you posted!

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

Tax return reviews help clients level up charitable giving plans

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Tax return reviews help clients level up charitable giving plans

Tax time has its silver linings! Going over a tax return with a client helps start a productive conversation about ways to plan gifts to charity more effectively. As you scan 2023’s charitable contributions, talk with the client about whether those charitable gifts were made with cash or with other assets and then steer the conversation toward discussing the most effective assets to give to charity during 2024 and beyond.

Here is a four-point checklist that can help you advise your clients about the range of charitable giving options.

–Remind clients that cash is not king when it comes to charitable giving. Cash is typically not the most tax-effective form of charitable giving. Instead, encourage clients to consider giving highly-appreciated assets, including publicly-traded stock, to their fund at The Community Foundation to support their favorite charities.

–Think even beyond stock. Encourage clients to explore not only highly-appreciated stock as a potential gift to charity, but also the various forms of “noncash” assets that can make great charitable gifts. After all, American households’ most valuable assets are retirement accounts and personal residences, not cash. Examples of assets that could be excellent charitable gifts depending on the client’s circumstances include gifts of real estate, closely-held stock, collectibles, and, for clients who are age 70 ½ and older, direct transfers from an IRA (known as a Qualified Charitable Distribution) to a field-of-interest or unrestricted fund at The Community Foundation.

–Make it easy on yourself and your client. Reach out to the team at The Community Foundation for assistance! We are happy to help you and your client evaluate the best assets to give to a donor-advised or other type of fund at The Community Foundation to achieve the client’s charitable goals.

–Close the loop on IRS reporting. Remember that the reporting requirements are different for noncash gifts to charity versus cash gifts. Make sure you are familiar with IRS Form 8283, which must be filed with any tax return claiming a deduction for noncash assets valued at $500 or more. The IRS expects strict adherence to the terms of the form, especially the requirement for a qualified appraisal. On our end, The Community Foundation will handle the confirmation of receipt and a commitment to document and notify the IRS if disposition occurs within three years.

Opening up the full range of charitable giving options for a client can help you structure a holistic estate and financial plan that meets the client’s objectives for family wealth, philanthropy, and tax effectiveness. Reach out anytime to the team at The Community Foundation to discuss techniques and strategies.

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

Our door is open: What happens when you meet with the team

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Our door is open: What happens when you meet with the team

At The Community Foundation, we are honored to work with generous individuals and families like so many of you who’ve established funds to support the causes you care about and the needs of our community both now and in the future. We’re also inspired by those of you who are getting to know The Community Foundation and considering establishing a donor-advised or other type of fund.

Wherever you are in the stages of your philanthropic planning, the team at The Community Foundation is here for you and considers our relationship to be personal. That’s why we welcome the opportunity to meet with our fund holders and prospective fund holders. Here are a few insights into what those meetings are all about.

You can expect personal, dedicated service. Unlike financial institutions’ donor-advised fund platforms where access to a dedicated donor services team can be rare, the staff at the local Community Foundation is here to help you every step of the way along your charitable giving journey. Our team is happy to meet with you one-on-one, and we are also happy to join a meeting with you and your legal, tax, or financial advisor to assess your current situation and determine the best charitable tax strategy for you. This includes evaluating the best assets to give to your fund or funds at The Community Foundation, including publicly-traded stock and even other noncash assets such as real estate or closely-held stock.

We care about your intentions for your fund. The team at The Community Foundation wants to understand the areas of interest that are a priority for you, whether that’s the arts, health care, social services, the environment, education, community development, or something else. We also want to understand the role you envision for the successor advisors you’ve named in the fund documentation, such as your children, who will make decisions about the fund when you are no longer living or able to manage the fund yourself.

We will help you establish additional funds to meet your goals. Sometimes when the team at The Community Foundation is working with a fund holder to understand the intentions for a donor-advised fund, we discover that it’s worth adding one or more additional funds to complement the donor-advised fund structure already in place. For example, some fund holders decide to also establish a designated fund for a particular nonprofit organization or an unrestricted fund to support The Community Foundation’s mission in perpetuity. Many times, fund holders decide to make recurring contributions over time to multiple funds at The Community Foundation to achieve their various philanthropy goals.

We make the paperwork a breeze. As you know if you’ve already established a donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation, the paperwork is straightforward and not at all cumbersome. As we’re exploring updating your existing donor-advised fund, setting up a new donor-advised fund, or adding additional types of funds to your portfolio, we’ll prepare simple documentation to capture your wishes, collect important contact information, and address your vision for your fund or funds both during and after your lifetime.

We’re always here to strategize about your giving options. As you periodically review your assets and financial situation with your advisors, keep an eye out for appreciated assets that could be ideal to give to your fund or funds at The Community Foundation because of the potential capital gains tax savings. The Community Foundation can work with you and your advisors on contributions of a wide variety of assets to help you achieve your tax and estate planning goals. We are happy to go over the appraisal and documentation requirements for gifts of nonmarketable assets such as closely-held stock and real estate.

Our team is here to help you stay up-to-date and on the various ways you can support the community by working with The Community Foundation and partnering with other fund holders.

Thank you for your commitment to philanthropy! If you’re already a fund holder, we are grateful that you’ve made the choice to organize your giving by working with The Community Foundation. If you’re considering getting started, we look forward to continuing the conversation! In either case, we look forward to seeing you soon!

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

Full circle: Grow your philanthropy through recurring gifts

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Full circle: Grow your philanthropy through recurring gifts

Developing a practice of regular contributions to your donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation not only allows you to systematically build a philanthropic nest egg for your annual giving to favorite charities, but also paves the way for your future legacy bequests. Whether your cadence of contributions is monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually, the consistency delivers many benefits. For instance:
–As your donor-advised fund grows, it allows you to be nimble with your giving and meet the urgent needs of the community as they arise. For the community as a whole, this type of support and stability gives many nonprofit organizations’ leaders the peace of mind and security of knowing that important programs can continue through good times and bad.

–Recurring giving to your donor-advised fund also helps build ultimate capacity to ensure that your principles and dedication to altruistic endeavors endure long beyond your lifetime. Many fund holders at The Community Foundation have included provisions in their donor-advised fund documents to leave all or a portion of the donor-advised fund remaining at their death to an unrestricted or area of interest fund at The Community Foundation.

–Talking about your recurring support through The Community Foundation helps to create a giving culture within your family. Over time, your children and grandchildren will learn that philanthropy is an important family tradition and that charitable giving is a critical source of funding for programs that improve the quality of life for so many people in our region. Your donor-advised fund at The Community Foundation offers ongoing flexibility to fulfill your own charitable goals as well as the goals of the next generation.

The team at The Community Foundation is happy to work with you and your advisors to determine the best way for you to make regular contributions to your fund, especially if your priority is to give highly-appreciated stock to take advantage of the opportunity to avoid income tax on capital gains.

We look forward to talking with you about how recurring donations to your existing donor-advised fund (or a new donor-advised fund if you’re considering it) might be a fit for you and your charitable plans.

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

Tips for serving clients who love local

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Tips for serving clients who love local

 

Your charitably-minded clients certainly have no shortage of options for their philanthropic dollars. Many clients use their donor-advised funds, for example, at The Community Foundation to support favorite charities across the country, including alma maters, organizations in the communities where they’ve lived in the past or have a second home, or charities in communities where their grown children are now living. 

Many clients, though, are also deeply committed to the local community where they’re living now, where they’ve raised their children, and where they’ve built a business. That’s why it’s helpful to remind clients that they can reach out to the team at The Community Foundation when they want to make sure their dollars are making the biggest difference possible, right here in our community. Indeed, local giving satisfies many clients’ commitment to “take care of our own.” The unfortunate steady flow of crises and even disasters, coupled with decreasing state and federal funding to local nonprofits, means that philanthropy is playing an increasingly important role in our region. The Community Foundation, through its wide variety of fund types available to your clients (including endowment funds to support the community in perpetuity), can help your clients achieve their goals for local support, whether that takes the form of disaster recovery, supporting families in need, funding critical workforce development, or paving the way for historic preservation initiatives.

The Community Foundation team is always happy to provide insight into the challenges our community is facing right now and which organizations are delivering services to alleviate those needs so that your clients can provide immediate support through their donor-advised funds.

In addition, an unrestricted fund may be a good fit for clients who want to improve lives, right here in this community, for generations to come, whatever challenges our region may face at any given point in time. An unrestricted fund may be particularly compelling for your clients who are 70 ½ or older. These clients may be eligible to make annual distributions up to $105,000 per spouse from their IRAs directly to an unrestricted fund at The Community Foundation. This transfer is called a “Qualified Charitable Distribution,” or “QCD.” Not only do QCD transfers count toward satisfying Required Minimum Distributions, but your client also avoids the income tax on those funds. Furthermore, those assets are no longer part of the client’s estate upon death, so the client can avoid estate taxes, too. 

Please reach out to the team at The Community Foundation for more information on how your clients can support both current and future local needs, and also meet their own financial, tax, and generational legacy goals.

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. 

Psst: Don’t forget about charitable gift annuities

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Psst: Don’t forget about charitable gift annuities

 

Certain charitable clients may wish to structure a gift to charity so that the client retains a lifetime income stream. Keep in mind that a charitable gift annuity (“CGA”) could be an attractive option for these clients. Plus, if the client is 70 ½ or older, the client can take advantage of the one-time Legacy IRA opportunity to give $53,000 to a qualified charity such as an unrestricted or field-of-interest fund at The Community Foundation.

A CGA, like any other annuity, is a contract. Your client agrees to make an irrevocable transfer of cash or assets to a charitable organization. In return, the charitable organization agrees to pay the client (or a designated beneficiary such as a spouse) a fixed payment for life. Your client is eligible for an immediate income tax deduction for the present value of the future amount passing to charity. 

The team at The Community Foundation can help you stay up-to-date on the latest CGA rate changes (including the rates that took effect at the beginning of this year). We’ll work with you to evaluate whether and when a CGA is a good planning move for your client. 

 

Use caution when advising clients about donating works of art

Your clients who own highly-appreciated works of art certainly can consider making gifts of this property to a charity. Use caution, though, when helping clients structure gifts of artwork. To be eligible for a charitable deduction at fair market value, the nonprofit recipient’s use of the donated artwork must meet certain qualifications, in that the artwork has to be used for its charitable purpose (think art museums). On top of that, be wary of techniques that recently have come under severe IRS scrutiny and have been determined to circumvent the rules for tax deductions. 

 

This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice.