topic Re: If I donate shares of stock to a charitable organization, how do I figure my charitable contribution? in Deductions & credits

If I donate shares of stock to a charitable organization, how do I figure my charitable contribution?

tek_tech — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 20:23:48 GMT

Do I deduct my cost basis of the stock from the value of the shares acknowledged by the charity?

Re: If I donate shares of stock to a charitable organization, how do I figure my charitable contribution?

Bsch4477 — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 20:40:40 GMT

The value of your donation is the value of the stock when you donated it—your proceeds.

Re: If I donate shares of stock to a charitable organization, how do I figure my charitable contribution?

Opus 17 — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 21:01:54 GMT

You should really just answer the questions in the interview and let turbotax do the math because it can get more complicated than a simple yes or no. See publication 526.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p526

For stocks that you held less than one year, you can only claim the purchase price (your basis), because if you had sold them it would be considered "ordinary income property" and you can only claim the basis on ordinary income property.

If you held the stocks longer than 1 year so that a sale would be considered a long term capital gain, then you can usually claim the fair market value and don't have to apply a basis. However, this does not apply if you choose to apply the 50% rule instead of the 30% rule.

This is a bit complicated. Many charities are "50% limit charities", this means you can only deduct cash donations up to 60% of your adjusted gross income or non-cash donations up to 50% of your AGI. However, when donating capital property to a 50% limit charity, the limit on the capital gains property is 30% of AGI. For example, if your AGI is $100,000, the most you can deduct for a gift of appreciated stock in one year is $30,000. If you donate more than $30,000 worth of stock, the rest of the deduction carries forward to next year. You can choose to apply the 50% limit instead, meaning you can donate 50% of your AGI or $50,000, but if you do this, you can't use the stock's FMV and must use your basis instead. As a practical matter, that will usually mean that if you are giving stock that has increased in value, you will want to use the 30% limit so you can claim the full value, but you might decide to use the 50% limit if you are donating stock that has decreased in value.

Easiest to just follow the interview and let Turbotax figure it out.

Re: If I donate shares of stock to a charitable organization, how do I figure my charitable contribution?

tek_tech — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 17:54:59 GMT

If I receive a letter from the charitable organization stating the value of the stock received on xx/xx/xxxx was $6550.79 (theoretical number), that is the value I would use when itemizing?

Re: If I donate shares of stock to a charitable organization, how do I figure my charitable contribution?

Mike9241 — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 18:59:09 GMT

yes it is assuming the stock was held more than 1 year

Re: If I donate shares of stock to a charitable organization, how do I figure my charitable contribution?

pilbug — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 22:31:15 GMT

If you actually read IRS Publication 561, it says the fair market value is the average of the high price and the low price for that day. This is what I was looking for when I searched this question, it is not clear if this was the original asker's question, but I think it's an important detail.

For example, when a charity I donated to sent me a confirmation letter, the value they used was the price at close, so I don't think you can just assume what the charity says is accurate.

Reference:

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p561#en_US_202501_publink1000257932 [restored]

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