As you reboot after 2020, now is a great time to consider your charitable giving plans for 2021. COVID-19 has proven to be a marathon, not a sprint. Nonprofit organizations will be relying on the generosity of donors for the foreseeable future to stay afloat and serve the people who need their programs.
We are committed to being a resource to you as you help to make 2021 a better year for our community. For example:
- Even non-itemizers should consider making at least $300 in cash contributions to qualifying charities (and now $600 for non-itemizing joint filers) this year. The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, known as the Coronavirus Stimulus 2.0 bill, was passed by Congress on December 21, 2020 and signed by President Trump on December 28. The legislation extends the CARES Act’s temporary, above-the-line charitable deduction for contributions to qualifying public charities for tax year 2021.
- The Coronavirus Stimulus 2.0 bill also includes a one-year extension of the CARES Act’s provision increasing charitable deduction limits to 100 percent of AGI for contributions by individuals to qualifying charities. This creates an opportunity to work on a charitable giving budget for 2021, especially because you’ll want to run calculations to determine whether clients can benefit from this incentive, or whether a client would still be better off carrying forward charitable contribution deductions into future years.