Is donating stock tax deductible?
If you itemize. Shares held more than a year are deductible at their full market value on the day you give them, and because you give them rather than sell them, the gain isn’t taxed as a sale would be.
The rule
Stock, funds and other investments you have held more than a year are deductible at their fair market value on the day the charity receives them. You never sell them, so there is no sale and no capital gain to report.
Held a year or less, they are deductible only at what you paid. Shares bought five months ago for $800 and worth $1,000 are an $800 gift.
Gifts of appreciated investments to most charities are limited to 30% of your income in a year, against 60% for cash. What goes over the limit can be carried over to later years.
The deduction without itemizing covers cash only, so stock puts nothing back unless you itemize.
Without itemizing, stock counts for nothing that year. If you itemize, its full value counts, above the 0.5% floor.
- Without itemizing
- No
- If you itemize
- Full value, if held over a year
- What to keep
- The charity’s written acknowledgment describing the shares, the brokerage record of the transfer, and what you paid and when.
- Watch for
- Stock worth less than you paid is deductible only at what it is worth now, and the loss is lost. Selling it first keeps the loss for your return, and you can give the cash.
- Publicly traded stock over $500 goes on Form 8283, Section A, and needs no appraisal, whatever it is worth.
Checked on October 2, 2026 against Publication 526, Charitable Contributions and IRS, Working Families Tax Cuts provisions. An estimate for your records, not tax advice.
Federal tax only. States set their own rules for gifts.
Keep every gift with its receipt.
From 2026, up to $1,000 of cash gifts counts even without itemizing. Reimburse keeps each gift with the charity’s receipt, asks for the paper the IRS wants, and shows what it puts back.