Bracket Creep

Good quote from the other Professor Fleischer:

From a tax perspective, it makes sense for the Romneys to use shares of stock to make charitable donations, Mayer said. If someone donates shares that have increased in value, they can deduct the contribution while avoiding the 15 percent capital gains tax they would have to pay otherwise.

“It’s a very common strategy,” Mayer said.

Still, the large amount of cash donations reflects that Romney wasn’t engaged in an aggressive strategy to use charitable contributions to lower his taxes, said Miranda Fleischer, an associate professor of taxation at the University of Colorado Law School.

“In 2011, about 75 percent of what he gave was in cash and that’s not necessarily the most tax-advantageous method,” she said.

via Romney Tax Returns Show $7 Million in Donations Over 2 Years – Businessweek.