Donate Stocks, save $$$$$

Many clients ask me how to avoid paying Capital Gains on stock sales. The short answer is you can't. However, what you can do and what I suggest is donating the stock to a charity. As an example, let's say you purchased IBM many years ago. The purchase price (or the cost basis) was $ 2,000. Today your stock is worth $ 10,000. If you were to donate your shares to a charity you could take an $ 8,000 deduction for charitable contributions and not have to claim the $ 8,000 as income. You wouldn't pay tax on your gains.