May 1, 2023 Weekly Update

We do love it when someone refers a family member or friend to us.  Sometimes the question is, “How can we introduce them to you?”   Well, there are multiple ways but a very easy way is to simply forward them a link to this webpage.

Here are this week’s items:

Portfolio Update:  Murs and I have recorded our portfolio update for May 1, 2023

This Week’s Podcast -Maximizing Tax Benefits by “Bunching” Charitable Contributions

Listen in to learn how to bunch your charitable contributions into one year using the donor-advised fund. You will also learn why the donor-advised fund is the most flexible version of giving through the bunching strategy.

 

This Week’s Blog – Maximizing Tax Benefits by “Bunching” Charitable Contributions

Taxes are something very few people are excited to talk about. We know that it’s far more exciting to talk about maximizing tax benefits when trying to secure your retirement. And that’s what this entire blog post is about: saving money by bunching your charitable contributions.?

Maximizing Tax Benefits by “Bunching” Charitable Contributions

Taxes are something very few people are excited to talk about. We know that it’s far more exciting to talk about maximizing tax benefits when trying to secure your retirement. And that’s what this entire blog post is about: saving money by bunching your charitable contributions.

Note: We have a podcast on this very topic, which you can find here.

Why Should I Consider Charitable Contribution Bunching?

If you’re charitably inclined, you can save a lot of money by bunching your charitable contributions together. In the current tax code, whether you’re single or married, you receive what is known as a “standard deduction.”

Before this deduction, people would itemize all of their deductions one item at a time. The IRS decided that instead of itemization, people should have a standard deduction that doesn’t require them to list all of their deductions and saves the IRS time, too.

In 2023, the standard deduction is:

  • Single person: $13,850
  • Married: $27,700

When you take this deduction, you cannot itemize. Anyone who is giving money to charity will not be able to deduct their donation unless it is itemized, which really only makes sense if the figure is higher than the two listed above.

Bunching charitable contributions is one way to use deductions to maximize tax benefits.

Examples of Standard Deduction vs Itemizing Your Deductions

Today, the standard deduction has changed so much from 2017. In 2017, a married couple filing jointly would have a standard deduction of $12,500. With the figure being $27,700 in 2023, it becomes much more difficult to reach the amount of itemized deductions to justify not taking a standard deduction.

For example, let’s assume someone is charitably inclined and gives $10,000 in a calendar year.  The person also has $13,000 in other deductions, bringing their total deduction to $23,000. Since this figure is lower than the standard deduction, it doesn’t make sense to itemize.

However, people like getting tax benefits from giving their money away, and this is where bunching comes into play. A donor-advised fund is the perfect way to leverage bunching, and we’ll be talking about this type of fund more in the next few paragraphs.

Let’s assume that every year, you give $10,000 to charity.

In 2022 and 2023, instead of giving $10,000 each year, why not “bunch” it into an account that allows you to deduct $20,000 in 2022? You don’t even need to give all of the money out in 2022.

When you do this, you can deduct:

  • $20,000 in contributions
  • $13,000 in the other deductions that you have

Adding up all of these figures, you can deduct $33,000 in expenses, which is much higher than the standard deduction. You’ll deduct more from your taxes in 2022 using this strategy and can still take the $27,700 deduction in 2023.

  • How can you bunch all of your charitable contributions into a single year?
  • Do you need to give the full $20,000 in a single year?

For many people giving money to charity, they make a commitment to give a certain amount of money each year. Your church may need $10,000 a year and a lump sum of $20,000 may not be beneficial for them.

Donor-advised Funds and Bunching Charitable Contributions

Donor-advised funds allow you to do a few things:

  • Group deductions in one year
  • Give the funds to the account and not the church (like in the example above)

Charles Schwab, Vanguard and similar custodians will have a donor-advised fund. You will write a check to one of these funds for $20,000 and it will sit in these accounts. If you don’t want to write a check, you can also put stock in the account. Any money in the account can also be invested, which is a nice way to give even more money to charity.

When you put money into the fund, it’s an irrevocable gift to the charitable fund, but you’re in complete control over how to use this fund.

If you want, you can gift $10,000 a year to your church as long as it’s an approved charitable organization. You can log into your fund and request a check sent to the church from your fund.

However, you can bunch your charitable donations every few years by putting the funds into an account that you can control.

You can even decide to:

  • Reduce contributions
  • Give money to other charities

You don’t need to decide who gets the money when you create the fund. Once the money is in the account, you can direct the money as you see fit. Perhaps you want to let the $20,000 sit in the account for a few years and then give $2,000 of it away for 10 years. You have this option.

The only thing that you cannot do is give the funds back to yourself. After all, you’ve been given a tax break and the IRS won’t allow you to take the funds back.

Bunching can be done for two, three or more years. There are strategies around bunching that can save you more money. Typically, two to three years of bunching is what we see with our clients because it helps with maximizing tax benefits.

When you use bunching, you:

  • Save money on taxes
  • Still maintain full control over who gets the money

Donor-advised funds are available from most custodians. We work with Schwab, and they allow us to create one of these funds right online for our clients. Different custodians may have different setup requirements, but they all make it rather easy to set up your donor-advised fund. The process of setting up a donor-advised fund is as easy as opening a checking account.

 You can transfer money or stock into the account, too.

Our clients who are focused on retirement planning save a few thousand dollars by bunching their charitable contributions. If you are committed to donating a certain amount to charity each year, it makes sense to give bunching a try for yourself.

Do you want to learn more about bunching and donor-advised funds?

Click here to schedule a call with us to discuss charitable bunching with a member of our team.

January 9, 2023 Weekly Update

We do love it when someone refers a family member or friend to us.  Sometimes the question is, “How can we introduce them to you?”   Well, there are multiple ways but a very easy way is to simply forward them a link to this webpage.

Here are this week’s items:

Portfolio Update:  Murs and I have recorded our portfolio update for January 9, 2023 

This Weeks Podcast – 10 Tax Tips For The Beginning 2023

Do you want to keep your tax planning smooth as you set goals for this year? As you think about getting ready for the tax season and setting goals for 2023, we know you want to make your life a bit simpler.

We discuss things like tax-free sources of income, Roth conversions, tax withholding, Required Minimum Distributions, and much more.

 

This Weeks Blog – 10 Tax Tips For The Beginning 2023

With 2023 here, one thing that you want to consider when retirement planning is taxes. You never want to spend more money on taxes than necessary, and that’s why we’re starting this year off by walking you through tax tips.

10 Tax Tips for The Beginning of 2023

With 2023 here, one thing that you want to consider when retirement planning is taxes. You never want to spend more money on taxes than necessary, and that’s why we’re starting this year off by walking you through tax tips. 

10 Tax Tips to Start 2023 Off Great

1. Take Advantage of Tax-free Income

Tax-free income is ideal, and you likely have:

You may have to pay taxes on all of these sources of income. However, you may have tax-free income that you can begin to take:

  • Roth IRA distribution (not the ideal source of income to start off retirement)
  • Savings 

Using savings for your source of income this year can help you with Roth conversions, avoiding capital gains or Social Security payments, too.

If you consider where your income is coming from, it will allow you to at least leverage tax-free income to your advantage this coming year.

2. Consider Traditional to Roth IRA Conversions

Converting a traditional IRA account to a Roth account may be in your best interest. First, you can allow your money to grow tax-free. Second, if someone inherits these accounts, they benefit from the tax-free account, too.

You will need to pay taxes during the conversion, and this hits on point 1, too.

If you can use tax-free income during the year of your conversion, you may be able to stay in a lower tax bracket and save money on taxes.

3. Review Your Tax Withholding

If you’re early in retirement, you might find yourself:

  • Under-withheld
  • Overpaid 

In both cases, it’s better to be right on the mark with your taxes. If you overpay, there’s no penalty, but you also can’t grow this money if it’s in the government’s hands. We can review these withholdings with you to ensure that you’re not paying too much or too little to the government.

4. Track Medical Expense Deductions

Medical expenses may or may not be deductible, but you need to have these expenses outlined in either case. You can deduct some of these expenses, and your accountant will need this information to know if itemizing and medical expenses can reduce your tax burden.

5. Take Advantage of Charitable Contribution Deductions

If you don’t itemize your taxes, you may still be able to leverage charitable contributions. You may be able to use:

  • Qualified charitable distributions, which will take money from your IRA directly and gives it to charity without the money ever hitting your bank account.
  • Donor-advised funds. You can stack your contributions over a multi-year period into a single year to reduce your taxes if you use one of these funds.

Anyone who is charity inclined can take advantage of their charitable contributions to reduce their taxes.

6. Don’t Forget About Quarterly Payments

Quarterly payments are foreign to a lot of people who are just transitioning to retirement. You may have gains throughout the year that are realized, and the government can assess a penalty because they expect to be paid on this gain as it happens.

For example, if you sell a stock or a house, you may need to make a quarterly payment.

Sitting down with your accountant or tax advisor can help you better understand if you need to make quarterly payments or not.

7. Don’t Forget About State Taxes

State taxes must be considered, too. It’s easy to focus on your federal taxes and forget that the state wants their money, too. If you do live in a state that collects income tax, keep this in the back of your mind throughout the year.

8. Consider Part-time Work

When you’re planning for retirement, you may or may not consider part-time work. A lot of our clients become consultants and others will take on a part-time job to stay busy, cover medical insurance or just generate some additional income.

Working part-time may also open the doors for other things, such as:

  • Eligibility to contribute to retirement plans
  • Taking advantage of benefits
  • Traveling more during retirement

9. Don’t Forget About Required Minimum Distributions

Folks who are 72 or older will need to take their required minimum distributions (RMDs). You can take a monthly payment or a full payment upfront, too. In all cases, you need to make sure that you’re meeting the RMD thresholds every year.

If you’re just turning 72, we highly recommend giving us a call at (919) 787-8866 to discuss RMDs and to better understand how much you need to take out of these accounts each year.

10. Keep Track of Your Tax Documents

You’ll begin receiving mail in February that you need to compile together and give to your accountant. If you don’t keep track of these documents, you’ll need to scour for them rapidly, which is never fun.

A few of the documents that you’ll receive include:

  • 1099s from investment accounts
  • 1099s from Social Security
  • W-2s

Organizing all of these documents is a great way to start the year, whether you’re working with a CPA or doing taxes yourself. It’s good practice to have a system in place to manage all of your taxes, receipts and similar documents throughout the year.

Being fully prepared when going to your CPA will make taxes a lot less stressful in 2023.

We hope that these tax tips will help you go into the year with confidence, knowing that you have everything in order to meet your tax obligations but never pay more than necessary.

If you have any questions, please feel free to schedule a call with us today.