A look at maximizing tax breaks from charitable giving explains several strategies in Investor's Business Daily's article, "How You Can Squeeze Tax Breaks From Charitable Giving." One strategy is the Partial Payout, used to bequest all or some of an IRA. This works particularly well if the taxable account holds appreciable securities. It's best to use an IRA for donations in an estate plan, but of course every situation is different.
Consider the following scenario as an example: Ida Bass has a $500,000 traditional IRA, and she wants to leave $50,000 to charity from that IRA. The rest of the IRA is to be split evenly between her two children (Many IRA beneficiary forms require percentage allocations for multiple beneficiaries). Another way to do it would be for Ida to just leave 10% of her IRA to charity. The IRA form could designate that each of her kids will inherit 45% of the amount in the account at her death. This would leave the dollar size of her charitable bequest indefinite—potentially leaving more to the charity if the IRA grows or less if its value decreases.
Whether you implement the fixed amount or the percentage approach, problems can arise. Those who will inherit the balance of the IRA need to ensure that the charity is paid in full before September 30th of the year after the death of the donor. If you do that, those getting the balance can stretch out required distributions of the IRA balance and extend their tax deferral. However, if you miss the September 30th deadline, the taxable distributions will be accelerated. So individual beneficiaries should be aware of what they need to do if a charity also is on the form.
One other idea is to split the IRA. Bass could transfer $50,000 from her $500,000 IRA to a new IRA account, so that her favorite charity would be the beneficiary of the new IRA. That way her children won't have to worry about the charity if they want to claim the maximum tax deferral from the IRA they inherit.
Speak with an experienced estate planning attorney to learn more and to see if this strategy is right for you.
Reference: Investor's Business Daily (October 02, 2015) "How You Can Squeeze Tax Breaks From Charitable Giving"
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