Donate Stock or Cash? Calculator

Try an example: Itemizer, big gain Standard deduction 37% bracket Shares at a loss

02Give the Shares, Then Buy Them Back

The wash sale rule only stops you deducting a loss when you buy the same shares within 30 days before or after a sale, so it does not apply to a gift of shares that have gone up. The new shares’ cost basis is what you pay for them, and their holding period starts again: sell them within a year and any gain is short-term.

03The Rules for 2026

• New: a deduction for non-itemizers. From 2026, people who take the standard deduction can also deduct up to $1,000 ($2,000 married filing jointly) of cash gifts to public charities. Stock and other property do not count, and neither do gifts to donor-advised funds or supporting organizations.
• New: a 0.5% floor for itemizers. Itemizers deduct gifts only to the extent they exceed 0.5% of adjusted gross income. At $200,000 of income, the first $1,000 of gifts deducts nothing.
• New: a cap for the top bracket. When taxable income plus itemized deductions is above the start of the 37% bracket, itemized deductions are reduced by 2/37 of the smaller of total itemized deductions and that excess, which limits their value to about 35 cents a dollar.
• Appreciated stock. Shares held more than a year are deductible at market value, and the gain is never taxed. The deduction is limited to 30% of adjusted gross income (cash: 60%); the excess carries forward five years, along with any of it lost to the 0.5% floor. Shares held a year or less are deductible at the lower of what you paid and their market value.
• Shares at a loss. Sell them, take the capital loss, and give the cash. Giving them directly deducts only the current value and the loss is lost.
• State and local taxes are deductible up to $40,400 in 2026 (half if married filing separately), reduced by 30% of income over $505,000, but never below $10,000 (all three halved if married filing separately).
• Paperwork. Get a written acknowledgment for any gift of $250 or more. File Form 8283 for gifts of property over $500; publicly traded shares never need an appraisal.
• From an IRA instead. At 70½ or older you can give up to $111,000 in 2026 straight from an IRA as a qualified charitable distribution: it is left out of income and counts toward required minimum distributions (see the RMD calculator).

04How Each State Treats Charitable Gifts, 2026

A gift can save state tax too, but the rules vary widely. Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia give no deduction or credit for gifts. Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming have no income tax. Donating appreciated shares still avoids state tax on the gain wherever capital gains are taxed.

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05How We Calculate

• We recalculate the modeled federal and state taxes for each option for 2026, using the assumptions and exclusions below, and compare them with doing nothing: same income, no gift, shares kept. The cost of a gift is its value minus the tax it saves (or plus any tax a sale adds).
• Federal: the larger of the standard deduction (plus the non-itemizer cash deduction) and your itemized total, with the SALT cap, the 0.5% floor, the 60% and 30% limits and the 37%-bracket cap; long-term gains at 0%, 15% or 20% stacked on other income; the 3.8% net investment income tax on a sale’s gain.
• State: each state’s 2026 brackets from the Paycheck Calculator, its capital gains rules from the Capital Gains Tax Calculator, and the charitable rules in the table above. Where a state has its own itemized deductions, the state total is your mortgage interest, property tax and other deductions plus the gift; state income or sales tax is left out because most states do not let you deduct their own income tax. State caps and phase-outs on itemized deductions are generally not modeled; the notice beside the results says when an approximation applies.
• Married filing separately uses the federal separate brackets and limits, and each state’s single-filer schedule.

Not included: gifts to private foundations (20% and 30% limits), the election to deduct stock at cost under the 50% limit, carryovers from earlier years, the extra standard deduction at 65 and over, the alternative minimum tax, city and county income taxes, and other gifts you make in the same year.

06Frequently Asked Questions

07Sources

• IRS: One, Big, Beautiful Bill provisions (2026 non-itemizer charitable deduction)
• 26 U.S. Code 170: charitable contributions (0.5% floor, AGI limits, carryovers)
• 26 U.S. Code 68: limit on the benefit of itemized deductions (2/37 reduction)
• 26 U.S. Code 63: taxable income and the non-itemizer deduction
• IRS Publication 526: Charitable Contributions
• IRS: Instructions for Form 8283 (noncash gifts, publicly traded securities)
• IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32: 2026 brackets and standard deduction
• 26 U.S. Code 164: the SALT deduction cap
• IRS Notice 2025-67: 2026 retirement plan limits (QCD limit)
• 26 U.S. Code 1091: wash sales apply to losses only
• US Charitable Gift Trust: state treatment of charitable contributions (January 2026)
• Indiana Department of Revenue: deductions and credits
• Pennsylvania Personal Income Tax Guide: deductions and credits
• New Jersey: TAM-5, charitable contributions
• California: Schedule CA (540) instructions
• New York: itemized deductions
• Minnesota Statutes 290.0132 (non-itemizer charitable subtraction)
• Vermont Statutes 32 V.S.A. 5822 (charitable credit)
• Wisconsin Statutes 71.07(5) (itemized deductions credit)
• Massachusetts: differences between Massachusetts and federal tax law
• Washington Department of Revenue: capital gains tax

Federal figures: IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 and the July 2025 tax law. State brackets: the Paycheck Calculator’s October 21, 2026 tables. State charitable rules last checked November 3, 2026. Estimates for information only; not tax advice. Related: Capital Gains Tax Calculator · Tax-Loss Harvesting Calculator.