Real Estate—Outright Gift
You receive a charitable deduction for the full fair-market value of the unencumbered real estate. You may apply the deduction up to 30 percent of your AGI—in the year of the gift—with the five-year carryover provision. You avoid capital-gain tax on the appreciation you have in the property and there are no gift taxes. Because you have removed the property from your estate, you have also reduced your estate taxes.
Please note: Because the federal estate tax has been repealed for 2010, there is no current estate tax in 2010 for the gifts described on this page. However, the consensus opinion among professionals is that Congress will enact an estate-tax law that may be retroactive to January 1, 2010. It is very important that you seek the advice of your estate-planning attorney to determine what changes, if any, need to be made to your existing estate plans, and then again if Congress reinstates the estate tax sometime later this year.
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