Dear Friend,

As President of the Board of the Secular Coalition for America, and a former financial advisor to Silicon Valley executives, I would like to let you know about a few things you can do today to potentially lower your taxes for 2020.

While donations to the Secular Coalition for America to support our direct lobbying efforts are not tax deductible, donations to our affiliated organization, the Secular Coalition for America Education Fund (SCAEF), are tax deductible and SCAEF can accept donations from Donor Advised Funds, Private Foundations, and other entities that can only donate to public charities.

This year is an especially good year to consider these five tax savings ideas:

• With stock markets hitting all-time highs, many of us are sitting on stocks or mutual funds with large long-term capital gains. You can transfer a portion of those stocks or funds to SCAEF and get a 2020 tax-deduction for their full fair market value, plus avoid the long-term capital gain taxes that you would pay when selling those securities.
• For those over 70 1/2 with IRAs, you can direct your IRA administrator to donate up to $100,000 per year as a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) to one or more charities without those distributions counting as income on your tax return.  While Required Minimum Distributions are suspended for 2020, a QCD in early 2021 can count against your 2021 RMD.
• If your total itemized deductions are a little less than the standard deduction, you may be able to have more charitable impact and a larger two-year deduction by concentrating, or bunching, 2020 and 2021 charitable contributions into one year (2020) and then itemizing those deductions on your 2020 taxes.  
• For 2020 only, the CARES Act encourages larger charitable gifts by giving donors an option to deduct up to 100% of Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) for cash donations to public charities (normally limited to 60% of AGI) and then carry over any excess for up to five years.
• The CARES Act also allows a $300 deduction for charitable contributions made in 2020 for those who take the standard deduction.

Like any tax planning, taking timely action to complete transactions before year-end is important.  Your donations to SCAEF will support our work to increase the visibility and respect for nontheistic viewpoints in the United States and protect and strengthen the secular character of our government.

Thanks for your support,

Bob Kresek
Board President, SCA & SCAEF
Financial Advisor Emeritus