BCNG Portals Page- Donating never easier

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Donating never easier


By Robert Willis
Aug 08 2006

Philanthropy certainly was in the news recently when Warren Buffet the world renowned investor gave away $36 billion of his net worth. Not everyone has that kind of capital to donate but Canadians as a rule are a giving people. Stats Canada reports that donations were the highest ever reported at 6.5 billion in 2003 which was an 11.4 per cent increase over 2002. New tax changes introduced in 2006 could make Canadians even more generous in years to come.

The May 02/2006 budget will make charitable gifting a lot more beneficial to donors through the elimination of capital gains tax on gifts of publicly traded securities.

What this means is that any security that has built up capital gains over the years should be your donation vehicle of choice, as opposed to giving cash. Let me give you an example.

Let's say that you bought an investment 20 years ago for $1,000 and today it is worth $5,000 and you would like to make a $5,000 donation to your favorite charity. In the past if you sold the shares you would realize a $4,000 capital gain of which 50 per cent would be taxable at your marginal tax rate which we will say is 37.7 per cent."