Professional Advisor News

August 2025

Bunching: Bigger benefits under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

With all the buzz surrounding the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), what’s the verdict for philanthropic clients? Does it help or hurt their charitable giving? The answer: it depends. While some headlines estimate the OBBBA could generate up to $74 billion in additional gifts to nonprofits over the next decade, largely through the new deduction for non-itemizers available starting in 2026, the strategies your clients use may need to change with the new law.

Charitable bunching is an especially valuable technique to help clients maximize their tax benefits and community impact as the rules evolve. "Bunching" means combining several years' worth of contributions into a single tax year to exceed the standard deduction and maximize itemized deductions. Here’s why 2025 could be a banner year for bunching: 

• The OBBBA increases the standard deduction in 2025 to $15,750 for single filers and $31,500 for married couples filing jointly. So, generally speaking, your clients would need to increase their itemized deductions (including charitable donations) over previous years to exceed the standard deduction.

• The higher standard deduction will likely impact tax-motivated charitable giving, even with the expected uptick in the number of itemizers thanks to the OBBBA’s new state and local tax deduction allowances (subscriptions required to the Wall Street Journal).

• Beginning with the 2026 tax year, taxpayers who itemize can only deduct charitable contributions that exceed 0.5% of their adjusted gross income (AGI)—so the first 0.5% of AGI in donations provides no tax benefit.

• What’s more, starting in 2026, for clients in the 37% marginal tax bracket, the charitable deduction benefit is effectively capped at 35%, meaning a donation only reduces taxable income at that lower rate—even though the client’s top rate remains 37%.

That’s why now is the time to start talking with your charitable clients about the advantages of frontloading charitable donations in 2025, including through a donor-advised fund at Placer Community Foundation. Clients can make multiple years' worth of charitable contributions this year before the new laws kick in and then support favorite charities out of that donor-advised fund over the next several years.

Please reach out to the Community Foundation team to set your clients’ strategies in motion. Our team makes charitable giving easy, flexible, and effective, including working with you and your clients to maximize tax benefits while also supporting the charities they love. We look forward to hearing from you!

Dwight and Mary Odom utilize QCDs each year to contribute to their named designated fund at PCF. Annual grants from the fund support local nonprofits that are near and dear to their hearts.

QCDs: More important than ever

Against a backdrop of ongoing economic and legislative shifts, you’ll want to tap every tool at your disposal to advise your philanthropic clients. Indeed, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is motivating many attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors to zero in on charitable planning techniques that can deliver tax benefits and achieve the community impact that’s so important to their clients.

Near the top of almost every advisor’s list for clients 70 ½ and older is the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD). With nearly $17 trillion held in IRAs by 44% of U.S. households, advisors can’t ignore Qualified Charitable Distributions, which allow an individual to transfer up to $108,000 (2025 limit) from an IRA directly to an eligible charity. 

QCD rules themselves won’t change under the OBBBA, but QCDs may become even more relevant in light of other changes under the OBBBA. That’s because QCDs are excluded from income entirely, which means they actually directly reduce your client’s AGI—unlike itemized charitable deductions. This is critically important under the OBBBA, which will continue to impact the number of people who itemize deductions, especially seniors.

Here are the details:

• Under the OBBBA, the standard deduction for the 2025 tax year is $15,750 for single filers and $31,500 for married couples filing jointly.

• Note that single filers 65 or older receive an additional $2,000 as part of the age-based extra deduction. On top of that, the OBBBA introduces a new “Senior Bonus” deduction of $6,000, available from 2025 through 2028. Altogether, this means a single filer aged 65 or older may be eligible for a total standard deduction of $23,750, subject to phase outs starting at income levels of $75,000 (for single filers).

• QCDs count toward required minimum distributions (RMDs) without increasing taxable income—a key tax planning advantage.

• By lowering AGI, QCDs can help control Medicare premium surcharges (IRMAA) and preserve other credits or deductions that phase out with increasing income.

• Not only is the standard deduction increasing for 2025, but also, beginning in 2026, the OBBBA imposes a new 0.5% of AGI floor for deducting charitable contributions and also limits the tax benefit of charitable deductions for individuals in the top income brackets by capping the value of those deductions at 35%, even if the taxpayer’s actual marginal tax rate is 37%.

The bottom line here is that many of your retiree clients may find that their ability to benefit from itemized charitable deductions declines even further under the OBBBA. QCDs can help.

Please reach out to the Community Foundation team to help your client structure a QCD to a field-of-interest, designated, or unrestricted fund. Although donor-advised funds are not eligible to receive QCDs, we work with many families to establish other types of funds alongside their donor-advised funds to maximize QCD opportunities while also supporting the causes they care about. We look forward to a conversation!

Decision tree: Guiding clients’ philanthropy

At Placer Community Foundation, we know that you and other financial advisors, attorneys, and CPAs are always on the lookout for practical tools to help clients identify the most effective charitable giving vehicles for their unique situations. With the wide range of fund options available at the Community Foundation, it can be hard to know where to start. First and foremost, please call us! We are happy to work with you and your clients every step of the way. Still, we know that it can be helpful to gain a general understanding of the choices available to help clients optimize tax planning while achieving philanthropic goals. That’s why we’re sharing a simple decision tree to lay the groundwork for your client conversations.

Does your client want flexibility while also staying actively involved in supporting multiple causes?

If so, your client should consider establishing a donor-advised fund at the community foundation. Indeed, donor-advised funds are the fastest-growing charitable vehicle in the U.S. because they make charitable giving easy and effective for so many people who want to support a wide variety of favorite charities.

Advantages include:

• Immediate tax deduction for initial and subsequent contributions.

• Flexibility to recommend grants to IRS-qualified 501(c)(3) charities over time.

• Ability to name the fund and limit the sharing of donor information with recipient charities.

• Simplifies record-keeping and streamlines the process for annual giving.

Does your client want to make a long-term, meaningful impact on a single nonprofit?

If so, your client should consider setting up a designated fund at the community foundation.

Advantages include:

• Focused, predictable support for a chosen organization, either as recurring grants or support on an as-needed basis.

• Particularly beneficial for clients wishing to “bunch” charitable gifts to a particular organization (i.e., group multiple years of gifts into a single year for tax efficiency).

• Can provide a degree of protection from financial instability at the recipient charity because the community foundation retains stewardship of the assets while they are held in the fund.

Does your client want to address the region’s greatest needs, but prefers to rely on professional expertise?

If so, your client should consider establishing an unrestricted fund at the community foundation.

Advantages include:

• Enables the community foundation to direct resources toward the most urgent and evolving community challenges.

• Provides the highest flexibility for maximum impact as needs shift over time.

• Establishes a legacy of giving that adapts to future circumstances and priorities.

• Serves as a vital source of funds for our region’s ability to respond to crises or emerging opportunities, allowing the community foundation to act swiftly where resources are most needed.

Please reach out anytime! It is our honor to partner with you and your clients by offering tools and expertise to tailor charitable strategies for each client’s circumstances. We look forward to hearing from you and working together to make a difference in the community we all care about.