During the season of giving. One of the best
ways to give back is by donating your dollar and
to learn more about ways that you can donate while
also getting tax benefits. Joining me now is that
the walls are founder of walls. Are we management
? I welcome. Thank you for having me.
Glad to be here. We're so happy to have
you very timely. Top. What are some of
the best ways for our viewers to donate their dollar
this holiday season? Well, I'm so interest that
you talking about the self check out because all of
these, I just went to square yesterday myself and
got some retail therapy and for the holidays and every
single purchase asks you to round up your purchase in
the next nearest dollar to get to their the boys
and girls club. So you'll notice all retailers pretty
much universally have a charitable cause they selected and they're
offering you to round up. But one thing to
note is that because that's on your receipt and if
you're not itemizing that on your schedule, a then
you're not gonna be able to do that as a
deduction. Ok. So it's going to be a
bit trickier. A little extra work. Exactly.
Is this something you'd recommend? Well, I think
that charitable donations are one of the best tax strategies
that we have in tax law. So, yes
. And of course, just because it's really a
good cause and we all need to help our fellow
brother and sister when they're down. And so,
yes, I'm 100% for charity. But if you
really are doing it for tax reasons and you must
itemize on schedule a and you must actually, you
know, have all of your receipts if you have
over$500 and you have to actually have an itemization
of all of your receipts. Ok. Good to
know what are some tips for finding the best places
to donate to? The best thing is to pick
a charity that I think is efficient. There's a
lot of charities that are very bloated and like 20%
or less goes to the actual charitable cause. So
there are resources out there that you can use like
charitable resource dot org that will allow you to find
a charity that is literally spending at least 70% or
more towards the actual charitable cause. And I think
that's probably a good way to track your money.
Right. You know, money is tight these days
due to inflation that could be a more efficient use
. Yeah, I mean, I think if you
really want your, your dollar to have an impact
. That is a great tool to figure the charities
that are very efficient and that are really using the
dollars for that purpose. Ok, great. So
obviously it is a tight time, right? On
the wallet because of inflation, high borrowing costs and
the holiday, any budgeting tips for this time of
year, I think the most important thing to know
is like, I love Black Friday and Cyber Monday
. And we all get those impulse purchases that we
just feel good about because it's the giving season,
right? But then we, we get that mode
and then we forget our budget. So I think
really understand your constraints and your budgeting and look at
your prices before you're going to the stores and know
it a deal or not. Like, don't just
get swept up in the event of cyber money,
the event of Black Friday, really understand if you're
getting a deal and set your limits, like it's
great to feel charitable. It's great to feel like
it's the season of giving. But if you're going
to have big credit card bills that you can pay
in January, then maybe we need to. So
that in some, I think a plan always helps
right about the plan, holiday shopping, grocery shopping
, you get there without a plan and I at
least 10 to overspend in areas, especially in a
year like this one so expensive. And so people
may be wondering that, you know, I don't
have a lot of money to give. But I
have some money, a small amount. You still
think it is worth it to donate your dollar in
that circumstance. I mean, this is the year
that we need donations. We have a lot of
people that are in need. I mean, the
expensive cost of everything has hit everybody and it's got
obviously hit the people that are marg at the lower
end harder. So I think charity is very important
, but you have to be cash, right?
My team and I, every year we go and
work at the homeless shelter locally in the soup kitchen
and that's just time and your time is valuable and
your time is does cost something, but it doesn't
cost money. So if you can't do mine this
year, give your time. There are so many
charitable causes, especially on the holidays and it will
give you more than you give it. I think
time is money, right? So let it's not
coming out of your bank account, but it is
certainly still value absolutely, very valuable. Ok,
so you're the expert here, walk us through some
of the tax benefit. How people would take advantage
of that if they do decide to donate their dollar
. Yeah, the best, the, the actual
best one that we like is the donation of appreciated
stock. So you get a double tax benefit when
you buy a stock, you get a cost basis
. If I buy a stock for$100. My
cost basis is$100. If I were to go
and sell that$100 stock and give my$100 I'm
only going to get$100 as a charitable donation.
But if I have that stock appreciate to$200 I
get a double tax benefit because I never recognized the
$100 appreciation. I never get taxed on that capital
gain and I get the full$200 deduction when I
donate to the charity. So donating appreciated stock is
what a double tax benefit. And it is a
great thing to do. If your tax, if
you need a deduction on, you have to itemize
on schedule a and anything above$500 you have to
fill out form. 8283 is the non cash charitable
contribution form for the IRS. But basically it allows
you to get and you do have to take the
average share price on the day that the stock was
sold. And there's a stock tool that you can
do to get that. It is very publicly known
. But all of these things really allow you to
get that double tax benefit. And that's one of
the best tax tips we have around charitable giving.
Ok, great. Any final tips for our viewers
? I think, you know, just realize that
this has been a really difficult three year period since
2020. And I think we're all still trying to
get our bearings. This market definitely is and this
is a great time to really think of charitable causes
in the traditional way. But also the other ways
that we've been talking about Rebecca Walser. Thank you
so much donating our dollar, like, donate our
time. Right.