Abstract Although it is too early to measure the effect of the 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act on charitable giving, it is apparent that charitable remainder trusts continue to enjoy popularity. However, actual results realized from making transfers to charitable remainder trusts may vary significantly from market-based expectations. The fundamental cause of such variances is the fact that official regulations governing valuation of remainder interests take into account neither market rates of interest nor the marginal tax rates of income beneficiaries. Accordingly, tax advisers have a need to know which form of trust is most advantageous to the donor. The authors approach the problem by establishing a set of four equations and examining the relationships among them. Using values derived from the equations, tables are presented to demonstrate the conditions under which annuity trusts or unitrusts are advantageous.
Byars et al. (Tue,) studied this question.