Charitable Giving for Apple Employees

It’s the time of year to spread holiday cheer! Kieu Le Turk, CFP® is here to share a great way for to support the charities near and dear to your heart, get a double tax break on your gifting, and take advantage of Apple’s $10k matching gift program.

There are five main steps to do this:

1.  Open a Donor Advised Fund

• This step is easy! You can do this with most major financial institutions, or our APW team would be happy to open an account for you! Let’s instead discuss what a DAF is.
•  A donor advised fund is a giving account established at a public charity. It allows donors to make a charitable contribution, receive an immediate tax deduction, and make grants from the fund to charities over time. Donors can contribute cash, securities, or assets – like highly appreciated Apple stock! Remember, this is an irrevocable contribution. While you can still control the funds, the money is no longer yours.

• Jump onto E-Trade and find the Apple shares with the lowest purchase price. Transfer the number of shares that add up to the dollar amount you want to donate to your new DAF.
•  Why are we choosing shares with the lowest purchase price?
•  If you sell shares with the lowest purchase price, any gain on those shares will be taxed at capital gains rate – either 15% or 20%, depending on your tax situation. If you donate highly appreciated stock, you can avoid the capital gains tax on the gain of the stock.
•  It is important to note – this strategy works on shares held for more than a year and charitable contributions of non-cash assets are tax deductible up to 30% of adjusted gross income.
•  Check with a tax advisor for all things tax related.
•  Apple is so generous; they annually match your charitable giving up to $10,000! On E-trade, select the shares with the lowest purchase price and calculate how many shares add up to the amount you want to be matched. Confirm and submit the transfer to your DAF.
•  Keep in mind, you don’t have to gift Apple stock to still benefit from this strategy.

• This is the fun step! Once you shares hit the DAF it will be immediately sold. The proceeds will be invested in a fund that you preselected when you established the account. Either a conservative, balance, or growth fund. This is where our APW advisors can help you with these decisions.
•  At this point, you can start gifting to your favorite charities from that fund! Choose your charity, decide how much, how often, and who to dedicate to. You can repeat the process if you’re giving to multiple charities.

• Once you have completed step three, you will need to give yourself a few days for the grant to be submitted. You may then log in to your DAF website to download the contribution receipts for each donation that you submitted.
•  These contribution receipts will need to be submitted to Apple in order to receive the dollar-for-dollar company match.

• On the main Benevity Apple Employee Giving page, you will be able to request a match. There, you will enter the information of your donation.
•  Use the charity’s tax ID number to designate the non-profit you gifted to. Enter the date from your contribution receipts and upload them. Be sure to review all the information, then confirm and submit your request.
•  Then, you’re all done! Log back in a few days later to make sure Apple sent their match to your charity.

As you can see, giving to charity can be a very straight forward process. However, there can be some complicated financial issues surrounding it. As Apple employees, you have a such a great opportunity to support your favorite charities and further their cause – all while getting some significant tax benefits!

At Austin Private Wealth, we are happy to help you figure out the best way to use this strategy for your charitable giving.