Gifts That Reduce Your Taxes

You can donate appreciated real estate, such as a home, vacation property, undeveloped land, farmland, or commercial property. Such gifts can be among the most generous that people can leave to Horizons and make a tremendous difference in the foundation’s capacity to respond to our community’s greatest needs. 

If you have a life insurance policy that you no longer need, you can use it to reduce your taxes and create a legacy gift for Horizons to secure our community's future for generations to come. When you transfer ownership of the policy to Horizons during your lifetime, you may receive an immediate tax deduction. Or by naming us as a beneficiary, your estate will receive a charitable deduction, which may reduce your estate taxes.

A charitable lead trust, or CLT, is an irrevocable trust that would support Horizons for a period of time, with the remaining assets eventually going to family or other beneficiaries. It is a way of making a gift to Horizons that reduces your gift and estate taxes, benefits our community over a period of years, and also allows you or your loved ones to receive the assets at a time of your choosing.

There are two ways charitable lead trusts make payments:

When you redeem savings bonds, you or the person you leave your bonds to will owe income tax on the appreciation. You can eliminate the income tax on bonds you own that have stopped earning interest and that you plan to redeem. Because Horizons is tax-exempt, 100 percent of your gift of savings bonds will support our mission.

You can create an effective legacy gift with donations of business interests such as stock in a closely held corporation, S-corporation stock, and shares in a professional corporation. When you make this gift, you receive a charitable income tax deduction for the full fair market value of the shares without capital gains liability. You can even use the shares to fund a legacy gift that will pay you income for life.

You can fund a gift for Horizons by transferring paintings, antiques, collectibles, automobiles, or other items of personal property. You receive an immediate tax deduction for the appraised value of your gift and avoid capital gains tax (if your gift satisfies the related use requirements of the IRS). You can even use your gift of personal property to fund a legacy gift that will pay you income for life.