McGuireWoods’ Michele McKinnon participated in a webinar, covered in a Sept. 13 Tax Notes article, discussing charitable giving in 2019, the impact of the 2017 tax changes and favorable gift techniques in the current tax and economic environment.
The article, “Uncertain Times Revive Interest in Charitable Gift Annuities,” summarized McKinnon’s comments during the presentation on the impact of the 2017 tax changes on charitable giving in 2018, which marked the first decline in charitable giving in several years.
“A strong economy should have correlated with strong giving, but some of the changes wrought by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, particularly the increased standard deduction, reduced the incentive to give,” she said.
McKinnon, a partner in Richmond, added that she has observed a rise in the remainder interest in a personal residence or farm gift technique over the past year, presumably due to low interest rates and low impact of the gift on the donor’s lifestyle.