Charitable Gift Annuities have many advantages. While it helps you contribute towards worthy causes, it also reduces incomes taxes and takes care of loved ones as well. Charitable Gift Annuities are fast becoming popular especially now that interest rates of CDs and other fixed income investments have dropped.
There are around eight thousand websites that provide information on Charitable Gift Annuities, and church organizations that accept them include the Episcopal Church Foundation, the Presbyterian Foundation, the Salvation Army and the Church World Service.
Not only does it help reduce income taxes, it also gives you an opportunity to exchange unwanted stocks and property for a Charitable Gift Annuity. This drops the tax on your profits and also gives you a tax write-off for charitable giving. When you are on Social Security, taxes on the sale of appreciated property are extremely high. Social Security income is also subject to taxes once a specified income bracket is passed.
Some churches are not set up to handle gift annuities. Then, they can work with organizations that have relevant experience. The Church World Service is one such example, and handles tax-beneficial transactions via the United Methodist Foundation of Northern Illinois.
Charitable Gift Annuities helps you prepare for rough times encountered in life. The income from annuities increases as the number of beneficiaries goes up. The same applies for the age of the beneficiaries as well. Disadvantages of this scheme are that you cannot change your mind, inflation and the fluctuation of the market.