Planned Giving Insights and Information

Misconceptions and Clarifications About the Charitable IRA Rollover

Question: When Is a Charitable IRA Rollover not a rollover? Answer: Never! Or - Always! Say what? Read on! The so-called “Charitable IRA Rollover” goes back to 2006, where it started out as a temporary provision in the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The provision expired at the end of 2007, but it was then reinstated retroactively for 2008. Over the next several years, the provision would be allowed to expire multiple times and was then reinstated, sometimes retroactively. This caused a great degree of uncertainty and rendered strategic planning around the provision quite difficult. The 2015 Tax Act (Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes or “PATH”) finally made the provision permanent.

IRS Proposes Regulations to Address Estate Tax Trap

The IRS has announced proposed regulations to address a technical, but potentially very important issue for taxpayers who make large taxable gifts during 2018-2025. The 2017 Tax Act nearly doubled the unified gift and estate tax exemption from $5,600,000 to $11,180,000. However, absent extending legislation, the doubling will expire at the end of 2025 and the exemption will go back to being computed the way it was prior to the 2017 Tax Act. Any of the increased exemption not used before it expires will be lost. This brings us to the technical part of the discussion.

60% of AGI Deduction Limit on Cash Gifts More Complicated than Many Realize

Among the many changes wrought by the tax law passed at the end of 2017, one welcomed by the charitable community was the increase in the deduction limit on gifts of cash to public charities from 50% of a donor’s adjusted gross income (AGI) to 60%. We have read this section of the new law carefully and determined that the application of the 60% limit is more complicated – and, well, limited – than many realize. We lay out below how we understand the 60% limit should be applied and how it interacts with the 30% and 50% limits.