#charitable-giving
Charitable Giving
Donation strategies, tax-deductible contributions, and qualified charitable organizations
Recording Gifts-in-Kind: A Nonprofit Accounting Guide to ASU 2020-07
Under ASU 2020-07 (ASC 958-605), nonprofits must record donated goods, services, and facility use at fair value on a separate line item and disclose valuation methodology by category, or risk an auditor flagging the financial statements.
The Fiduciary Duties Every Nonprofit Board Member Must Know
Nonprofit directors carry three legal fiduciary duties — care, loyalty, and obedience — and courts have held boards personally liable for failing to ask basic questions about how the organization spent its money.
The 0.5% AGI Floor on Charitable Gifts: Preserving Your Deduction in 2026 With Bunching, DAFs, and QCDs
Starting in 2026, OBBBA imposes a 0.5% AGI floor on itemized charitable contributions and caps top-bracket deductions at 35 cents per dollar. Bunching gifts, funding a donor-advised fund, and making qualified charitable distributions from an IRA recover most of the lost benefit for typical itemizing donors.
The Charity Deduction You Get Without Itemizing: A 2026 Guide to the New $1,000 / $2,000 Above-the-Line Write-Off
Starting in 2026, taxpayers who take the standard deduction can deduct up to $1,000 ($2,000 for joint filers) of cash gifts to qualified public charities under new IRC Section 170(p) — cash only, no donor-advised funds, no carryforward, and the same $250 documentation rules as itemizers.
The Standard Deduction Is Now Permanent: How OBBBA Reshapes the Itemize-vs-Standard Decision for 2026
How the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the doubled standard deduction permanent, raised the SALT cap to $40,000, added a 0.5% AGI charitable floor, and stacked a $6,000 senior bonus deduction — with concrete math for the 2026 itemize-versus-standard decision.
Form 1099-R Box 7 Distribution Codes, Decoded
Box 7 of Form 1099-R holds a one- or two-character code that decides whether a retirement distribution is taxable, penalty-free, or hit with a 10% early-withdrawal penalty. This guide explains every numeric and letter code, including the new Code Y for qualified charitable distributions, and the coding errors that overcharge taxpayers.
NIL Collectives and 501(c)(3) Status: What IRS Memorandum AM 2023-004 Means for Donors
IRS Memorandum AM 2023-004 holds that most nonprofit NIL collectives fail the 501(c)(3) operational test because compensating student-athletes is substantial private benefit, not charitable activity — meaning donor contributions are often not deductible.
Why Most NIL Collectives Aren't Real Charities (and Your Donation Isn't Deductible)
The IRS memorandum AM 2023-004 concluded that NIL collectives paying 80-100% of donations to athletes confer substantial private benefit and fail the operational test for 501(c)(3) status, so contributions to them are generally not tax-deductible.
Section 509(a) Public Support Test: How Nonprofits Stay Public Charities
The Section 509(a) public support test requires 501(c)(3) nonprofits to draw more than one-third of support from the public over a rolling five-year window. Fail it twice and you tip into private foundation status—facing a 1.39% excise tax on investment income, mandatory 5% annual payout, and donor deduction limits that drop from 60% to 30% of AGI.
The Section 645 Election: How Form 8855 Treats a Qualified Revocable Trust as Part of the Estate
A trustee's guide to the Section 645 election. File Form 8855 to fold a qualified revocable trust into the related estate during the election period and unlock a fiscal year, the charitable set-aside deduction, a two-year exemption from estimated tax payments, and a single combined Form 1041.
Form 8283 Noncash Charitable Contributions: A Donor's Guide to the $5,000 Qualified Appraisal Threshold and IRS Substantiation Rules
Form 8283 is required when total noncash charitable contributions exceed $500. Above $5,000, donors need a USPAP-compliant qualified appraisal and three signatures on Section B; over $500,000 the full appraisal attaches to the return. Section 170(o) can claw the deduction back if the charity disposes of tangible property within three years, and the 40% gross valuation misstatement penalty has no reasonable-cause defense.
Qualified Charitable Distributions in 2026: A $111,000 Tax-Free Path From IRA to Charity
A complete 2026 guide to Qualified Charitable Distributions — the IRS-sanctioned strategy that lets retirees age 70½ and older route up to $111,000 from an IRA directly to a qualified charity without recognizing the distribution as taxable income.