This assumes you had little to no other deductions, which is a reasonable caveat for most of life.
Lots of people in the US are already itemizing their deductions for another reason, like having a mortgage on a house, in which case optimizing which year you donate doesn’t matter.
I also expect donating at least once a year to be much better from a practice of maintaining motivation. I’ll often advocate people in this situation use a two-year schedule where they donate at the beginning of January and the end of December half the years, and not at all in the other half of the years, mentally classifying this as “making their annual donation”.
The December and January donation idea is a great solution. Also, touche’. This wouldn’t apply to people itemizing due to other deductions like a mortgage.
Also, three of the largest EA states (CA, NY and MA) have high enough state taxes that it becomes worth itemizing around $100k of income for that alone.
Lots of people in the US are already itemizing their deductions for another reason, like having a mortgage on a house, in which case optimizing which year you donate doesn’t matter.
I also expect donating at least once a year to be much better from a practice of maintaining motivation. I’ll often advocate people in this situation use a two-year schedule where they donate at the beginning of January and the end of December half the years, and not at all in the other half of the years, mentally classifying this as “making their annual donation”.
The December and January donation idea is a great solution. Also, touche’. This wouldn’t apply to people itemizing due to other deductions like a mortgage.
Also, three of the largest EA states (CA, NY and MA) have high enough state taxes that it becomes worth itemizing around $100k of income for that alone.
(I may have gotten the January/December thing from your post; not sure.)