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Plenty of retirees like to give back to their communities through charitable donations, but questions often arise over the best way to do that.
What approach is efficient, provides the tax benefits you're after, and also is advantageous for the charity that's on the receiving end?
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One possibility is a qualified charitable distribution (QCD), a tax-savvy way to reduce your taxable income and maximize your donations whether you itemize deductions on your tax return or not. An added bonus is that the benefits can be large for both the donor and the charity.
Here's How QCDs Work
A QCD is a distribution from an IRA that is paid directly from that retirement account to a qualified charity. QCDs lower your adjusted gross income (AGI) and therefore lower your tax bill. They can also offset required minimum distributions (RMDs), those withdrawals you must take from your IRA each year once you reach age 72. An RMD adds to your income, raising the amount of taxes you pay, but a QCD is excluded from your income. So, for example, if you withdrew $50,000 from your IRA as an RMD, you would pay taxes on that money. But if that same $50,000 was used as a QCD instead, you avoid the taxes while helping a charity at the same time.
SEE MORE Every Dollar Counts: How to Evaluate a Nonprofit
Taxpayers can benefit from QCDs even when they take the standard deduction and do not itemize their deductions. Meanwhile, even though a QCD doesn't count as an itemized deduction, tax
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While the fall equinox is still a few weeks away, the unofficial end of summer - also known as Labor Day - is upon us. That means a three-day weekend for investors and traders. The stock market is closed for 2022's Labor Day, which falls on Monday, Sept. 5, this year.
For those that may be interested, the bond market is closed for the holiday, too.
Unlike some market holidays, however, there are no early hours ahead of Labor Day. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq Stock Market and bond market all have regular trading hours on Friday, Sept. 2.
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Also note that a thin earnings calendar typically accompanies the Labor Day holiday.
As a reminder: Labor Day is a longstanding holiday in the U.S. that celebrates the American worker. The holiday was first adopted by Oregon in 1887, and seven years later, was made a national holiday across the U.S.
Dozens of other countries have a similar celebration called International Workers' Day that falls on the first day in May.
The following is a schedule of all stock market and bond market holidays for 2022. Note that regular trading hours for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq Stock Market are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern on weekdays. The stock markets close at 1 p.m. on early closure days; bond markets close early at 2 p.m.
2022 Market Holidays
DateHoliday
NYSE
Nasdaq
Bond Markets*
Monday, Jan. 17
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Closed
Closed
Closed
Monday, Feb. 21
P
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