Schwab's gift of appreciated stock → donating listed securities in kind

Transfers · act this week

Schwab gifted 31,850 shares rather than selling them and donating cash. In Canada the equivalent choice is not a nuance, it is the whole decision: a gift of publicly listed securities made in kind to a registered charity has the taxable capital gain reduced to nil under s.38(a.1) of the Income Tax Act, and the donation receipt is still for full fair market value. Sell first and donate the proceeds, and you pay tax on the gain and get the same receipt. Same charity, same dollars, materially different outcome.

This is one of the rare mechanics on this page that works identically at $3m and at $3,000. It needs no structure, no scale and no US domicile — only a non-registered account holding something with an unrealised gain.

The limit worth knowing: this treatment is for publicly listed securities. Shares of a private Canadian corporation — your own company's shares — are governed by different rules and generally do not get it. Do not assume the two are the same.

First step this weekBefore committing to any 2026 year-end giving, pull the unrealised gain on every non-registered holding and ask your accountant whether an in-kind transfer to the charity is available for the ones showing large gains. The transfer takes days to settle, so the deadline is effectively mid-December, not 31 December.

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Schwab's gift of appreciated stock → donating listed securities in kind

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