When the tax laws changed in 2018, most people no longer had to use the itemized deductions (Schedule A), but found it easier and more beneficial to just use the standard deduction. Generally, I find that there is a small minority that still itemize. They usually have a lot of property taxes, large amounts mortgage interest and give a generous amount to charities (such as tithing 10% to their church).
What most people don't know about is that you can use your charitable giving to control the amount of taxes you pay in a particular year. For example, you can bunch donations into a single year that you usually giver over several years. On the other hand, if you are expecting to have more income next year, then you'd want to defer some charitable donations and instead make them the following year.
One way to bunch donations into a particular year is by using Donor-Advised Funds (DAF), which are 501(c)(3) tax exempt organizations. You can contribute cash, securities or other assets into a DAF and generally take the charitable contribution in the year of the transfer. The transferred assets are invested into an account within the DAF that grows tax-free. You can also tell the DAF to make grants from your account to specific charities. The grants don't have to be made in the same year that you made your donation. And needless to say, the donations can be taken back, once gifted.
Here is an example:
Say you own $25,000 of stock in a publicly traded held company that you bought years ago for $10,000. If you decide to donate the stock to a DAF, you can claim a charitable deduction on Schedule A for the year of the donation, equal to the stock's value. Neither you nor the charity pay tax on the $15,000 of inherent gain. You then have an account within the DAF of $25,000 that is invested. The investment earnings in the account are not taxed, but grow tax free. This allows more money going to your favorite charity over time.
Be aware of these restrictions on your Schedule A donations:
You can deduct cash contributions only to the extent that your total cash donations don't exceed 60% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). The AGI limit for contributions of securities and other capital gain property is generally 30%. Any excess contributions rolled-over for five years. And since politicians are always changing things, be aware that the 60%-of-AGI limit for cash contributions is one of the tax provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that is slated to expire after 2025. Unless Congress acts, this limit will decrease to 50%. I'm sure that will be part of the negotiations when negotiating the tax bill next year.