[gene91]

Nitpicking the numbers.

If you're assuming 13% California, that's $1M annual income. You should assume 37% marginal federal tax rate for deductibles, and assume 23.8% federal tax rate (due to NIIT) for long-term capital gains.

Therefore, donation generates $497 of value (37%+13.3%=50.3%) whereas selling and keeping generates $632 of value (23.8%+13%=37.1%). Therefore, the difference ($135) is quite a bit smaller than your math ($270).

[londons_explore]

Numbers like this explain why charities are such big business. If I earn just 13 cents on the dollar of benefits from a charity (for example in freebie gala meals or networking events), then even selfish rich me would do well to give to charity.