The holiday season is customarily a time of giving gifts, whether to your favorite charity, family members or others. Some gifts even provide a variety of tax benefits.

But be wary; during the holiday season, you may receive phone calls, texts, emails, snail mail, or appeals on social networking sites for donations for various causes. However, some of these appeals may come from fraudsters and not legitimate charities. Unfortunately, this happens every holiday season.

So, before writing a check or giving your credit card number to a charity that you aren’t familiar with, check them out so you can be assured that your donation will end up in the right hands. Follow these tips to make sure that your charitable contributions will actually go to the cause you are supporting:

  • Donate to charities that you know and trust. Be alert for charities that seem to have sprung up overnight and that you are not familiar with.
  • Ask if a caller is a paid fundraiser, who they work for, and what percentage of your donation goes to the charity and fundraiser. If you don’t get clear answers—or if you don’t like the answers you get—consider donating to a different organization.
  • Don’t give out personal or financial information, such as your credit card or bank account number, unless you are sure that the charity is reputable.
  • Never send cash. You can’t be sure that the organization will receive your donation, and you won’t have a record for tax purposes.
  • Never wire money to someone who claims to be from a charity. Scammers often request donations to be wired because wiring money is like sending cash: Once you send it, you can’t get it back.
  • If a donation request comes from a charity that claims to help a local community group (for example, police or firefighters), ask members of that group if they have heard of the charity and if it is actually providing financial support.
  • Check out the charity’s reputation online using Charity Watch or other online watchdogs.

Gifts with Tax Benefits

A Gift of College Tuition – An interesting quirk in the gift tax laws is that an individual can pay a student’s higher-education tuitiondirectly to a qualified school, college, or university, and it will be exempt from gift tax and gift tax reporting. What student wouldn’t love to have part of their tuition paid? It would make a great gift. However, the giver isn’t allowed a charitable deduction on their income tax return for the tuition they generously paid.

As an aside, college tuition generally qualifies for a federal income tax credit. Another quirk in the tax laws says that the education credit goes to the individual who claims the child (student) as a dependent, generally resulting in a gift to the child’s parents in the form of the tax credit.

Example: Whitney is attending college and is the dependent of her mother and father. Whitney’s grandfather makes a tuition payment directly to the college; since it was made directly to the school, Whitney’s grandfather does not have any gift tax issues. Since Whitney is a dependent of her parents, her parents would claim any available tuition credit. Thus, by paying the tuition, Grandpa made a gift of tuition to his granddaughter and a gift of the tuition credit to her parents.

Qualified Tuition Program (Sec. 529 plans) – These arrangements allow taxpayers to put away large amounts of money, limited only by the projected cost of a college education, which varies from state to state with some plans capped at more than $525,000. The account’s earnings are tax-free if used to pay tuition and certain other college expenses, so the sooner the account is funded, the more it can earn. There are no limits on the number of donors or on age or income. The contributions are subject to the gift tax if the annual contribution exceeds the annual gift tax exclusion amount ($16,000 for 2022; $17,000 for 2023).

As of 2018, tax-free distributions of up to $10,000 per year per designated beneficiary are allowed for tuition (no other expenses are allowed) in connection with enrollment or attendance at elementary or secondary schools, including public, private and religious schools. However, this option should be considered cautiously, asSec. 529 plans work best when the money put into the plan is allowed to grow for a long period of time.

Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCDs) – Individuals age70½ or over can transfer up to $100,000 annually from their IRAs to qualified charities without the distribution being taxable. So, you might want to consider using QCDs for your smaller contributions. Contact your IRA custodian or trustee to arrange the transfer, which needs to be completed by December 31, 2022, to count for 2022. Since December 31, 2022 falls on a Saturday and is New Year’s Eve, it’s best not to wait until the last minute to initiate the transfer.

A word of caution:Congress, a couple of years ago, increased the IRA required minimum distribution (RMD) age to 72 but still allows QCDs once the taxpayer reaches age 70½, and they repealed the age restriction for making traditional IRA contributions beginning in 2020. This means a taxpayer can make traditional IRA contributions and QCDs after reaching age 70½. As a result, Congress included a provision in the tax law requiring a taxpayer who qualifies to make a QCD to reduce the QCD non-taxable portion by any traditional IRA contribution made after reaching 70½ that was deducted, even if the contribution and deduction are not in the same year. This is a complication you would want to consult this office about before making a QCD.

Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) – If you would like to make a substantial tax-deductible charitable donation this year but spread the actual distribution of funds to specific charities over a number of years, a donor-advised fund may fill that need. There are any number of reasons individuals choose DAFs, including making a substantial charitable donation in an exceptionally high-income year.

A DAF is a separate fund (account) set up within a public charity to which a donor makes a contribution. The donor then advises the sponsoring organization on how to ultimately distribute the funds from the account as charitable gifts over the course of many years. The fund isn’t required to follow the donor’s requests, but most do.

Tax law allows the sponsoring organization to be independent, community-based, religiously affiliated, or connected with a financial institution. Minimum contributions typically range from $5,000 to $25,000. The sponsoring organization manages the administration of the fund and handles the tax reporting, usually for an annual fee of 1%.

You get to take a tax deduction for your entire donation in the year you contribute the funds or assets to the DAF. In addition, the funds that are not distributed are invested and grow until eventually being disbursed to the charitable organization(s).

Work Equipment – If your spouse is self-employed and you purchase tools or electronics used in your spouse’s business, the costs of gifts qualify as a business tax deduction on the return for the year when the equipment is put into service.

Gifts to Employees –It is common practice this time of year for employers to give their employees gifts. If a gift is infrequently offered and has a fair market value so low that it is impractical and unreasonable to account for it, the gift’s value is treated as ade minimis fringe benefit. As such, it would be tax-free to the employee, and its cost would be tax deductible by the employer. However, be cautious, as any amount of cash given to an employee must be treated as taxable wages.

Monetary Gifts to Individuals – If you have a high net worth, you are no doubt aware that when you pass away, your estate may be subject to federal (and possibly a state) estate tax once the value of your estate exceeds an excludable amount. With the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), effective in 2018, the estate tax exclusion amount was more than doubled, from $5.49 million in 2017 to $11.18 million in 2018. It has been inflation-adjusted each year since, so the 2022 exclusion amount is $12.06 million ($12,920,000 for 2023).

However, in case you have forgotten, most of the provisions of the TCJA are temporary and expire after 2025, at which time the estate tax exclusion will revert back to the pre-TCJA level. Estimating the inflation adjustments, the 2026 exclusion amount would be reduced to approximately $6.25 million. Any amount of your estate in excess of the exclusion amount will be subject to the estate tax, which currently has a top rate of 40%. If you are married, the estate tax applies to the second spouse to pass away.

The value of gifts you make to individuals during your lifetime reduces the estate tax exclusion amount available to offset the value of your estate when you pass away. However, the estate tax exclusion is only reduced when the gifts you make during life exceed an annual amount, which is $16,000 for 2022 and $17,000 for 2023. That annual exclusion applies per individual, meaning you can give up to the exclusion amount to as many people you’d like every year, whether or not they are related to you, without reducing the estate tax exclusion. Unlike gifts to qualified charitable organizations, gifts to individuals are not tax deductible.

Of course, depending which political party is in control in Washington, D.C. after the 2022 and 2024 elections, the lifetime gift and estate tax exclusion could be reduced before 2026, or could be extended or made permanent. Congress would need to agree to lower the exclusion amount or extend the higher amount.