The standard deduction for US federal taxes is now a staggering $12,400. Few people who don’t have a mortgage will come close to reaching that value. But if you (or your donors) do fall into this category, there is a trick to maximizing the tax deduction—lumping 2 years worth of donations every other year, and then taking the standard deduction on alternate years.
This works best with a donor-advised fund, but it could also work without if you want to donate in early Jan one year and then late December the same year, which to your charities will still look like you are donating yearly.
The optimal value—where you receive the largest percentage increase in deduction—is at the standard donation (again, $12,400). But you still get benefits if you are on either side of that number. Of course once you hit ½ the standard deduction ($6,200), the gains disappear. [The chart below really should cap out at 0, since you would simply take the standard deduction each year at any given level below $6.,200.) And as you increase above it, the percentage gain falls off asymptotically.
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