What are the various tax benefits available to a donor?

Summary:

Charitable gifts can result in lowered taxes in many ways; here is a brief discussion of some of them.

The income tax, capital gain tax, gift tax, and
federal estate tax consequences will depend upon the source and subject
matter of the gift, the nature of the nonprofit donee, and also upon the
form of the gift (i.e. outright, Charitable Lead Annuity Trust,
Charitable Remainder Annuity, Charitable Remainder Unitrust, Irrevocable
Life Insurance Trust). In most cases, of course, only donors who itemize deductions on Schedule A when filing their annual personal income tax returns (1040s) will see any tax benefit linked to a specific gift (the "standard deduction" allowed for taxpayers who do not itemize on schedule A includes an allowance for typical levels of charitable giving.)

When large gifts are made, though, any properly structured form of gift is likely to
generate tax benefits for the donor; one should be sure that the donor will consult with
competent tax counsel as to the actual benefit to the donor or to his or
her estate from various forms of suggested gift transaction. These transactions can be
quite complex, and competent tax counsel should be used and counsel may
also find a different, more beneficial approach. It should also be noted that the tax ramifications and savings available through planned
giving are often considered for change in Congress.

Luke Davis asked on Jan 19, 2002, in GIFTPLAN (a forum at http://www.charitychannel.com):
Are there any known good web resources on Irrevocable Charitable Trusts, and the laws respecting them, the reporting requirements, operations thereof, etc., or any good articles about their workings, from the inside, not necessarily
from the prospective of some charity or author, with an agenda in some
direction?

Vaughn W. Henry, of Springfield, IL, offered these references:
Everyone has an agenda, don't kid yourself. However, I can suggest that the
Planned Giving Design Center (www.pgdc.net) does have a section with
documents posted on line for professional advisors to review that are much
better than the IRS prototype documents. It's a free site, but you'll have
to register to subscribe. My site (www.gift-estate.com) has a bunch of
information that's free to charities, but personal handholding is not free.
However, I do offer a free calculator on my site that will do lead and
remainder trusts, pooled income funds, gift annuities, life estates, etc.,
which is available for those interested in doing such calculations. For
professional advisors, there's a more detailed link that generates the
calculations needed for the IRS and compliance.

Stephen C. Nill, published of CharityChannel, suggested:
Luke, take a look at the GIFTPLAN thread "Updating My Planned Giving
Library," viewable on the Archive at
http://charitychannel.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S2=giftplan&q=&s=planned+giving+library&f=&a=&b=

And J. David Kerr suggested:
Consider joining RIA Checkpoint (online reference service) from
http://www.riahome.com/