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Charitable giving helps everyone
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To participate in the spirit of the holiday season, you may be thinking of making some charitable gifts. If so, you’ll no doubt enjoy helping a group that does valuable work.
But to begin with, it’s important to understand just how necessary your gifts are to the country’s social fabric. Given the effects of the Great Recession and the slow recovery, it’s not surprising to learn that charitable giving fell a combined 13 percent in 2008 and 2009, after adjusting for inflation, according to The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. And although 2010 giving increased by 2.1 percent, again adjusted for inflation, many groups are seeing tough times as 2011 comes to a close. So your gift counts.
 And it can count for you, too. By contributing to a qualified tax-exempt organization (e.g., a charitable group that has received 501(c)(3) status from the IRS), you may earn valuable tax deductions. This is true whether you give cash or another type of asset, such as stocks or real estate. And you may be able to get further tax benefits if the noncash asset you’ve donated has appreciated in value since you purchased it.
Making charitable gifts now may help you reduce your taxable estate. As you may know, the estate tax exemption level has fluctuated in recent years, so it’s hard for any of us to say for sure that we won’t be subjecting our estates to these taxes. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t take steps now to plan for possible future estate taxes.
One such step might involve establishing a charitable remainder trust. Under this arrangement, you’d place some assets, such as stocks or real estate, in a trust, which could then use the assets to pay you an income stream over a certain period of time. When you establish the trust, you may be able to receive tax benefits based on the amount the charity is likely to ultimately receive, the charitable group’s so-called “remainder interest.”
Upon its termination, the trust would relinquish the remaining assets to the charitable organization you’ve named. Keep in mind, though, that this type of trust can be complex; to establish one, you’ll need to work with your qualified tax advisor and estate-planning attorney. 
Another popular contribution vehicle is the “donor-advised fund.” Here’s how it works: You give cash or appreciated securities to the donor-advised fund, with the expectation of receiving a tax deduction for the contribution in that same year. You recommend which charities are to benefit from the contributions to the fund, and the fund invests and manages your contribution, along with the other assets in the fund. Again, you’ll need to consult with your qualified tax advisor before establishing a donor-advised fund to help ensure you obtain any expected tax benefits.
As we’ve seen, you can follow different charitable giving strategies. But however you choose to make charitable gifts, you can take satisfaction in helping worthy organizations while possibly improving your own tax picture.

This article was written by Edward Jones for use by Evans, the company's financial advisor in Richmond Hill.

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Record April boosts Savannah's container trade at port
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The Port of Savannah moved 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units in April, an increase of 7.1 percent. - photo by Provided

The Georgia Ports Authority's busiest April ever pushed its fiscal year-to-date totals to more than 3.4 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), an increase of 8.8 percent, or 280,000 TEUs, compared to the first 10 months of fiscal 2017.

"We're on track to move more than 300,000 TEUs in every month of the fiscal year, which will be a first for the authority," said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. "We're also anticipating this to be the first fiscal year for the Port of Savannah to handle more than 4 million TEUs."

April volumes reached 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units, up 7.1 percent or 23,700 units. As the fastest growing containerport in the nation, the Port of Savannah has achieved a compound annual growth rate of more than 5 percent a year over the past decade.

"As reported in the recent economic impact study by UGA's Terry College of Business, trade through Georgia's deepwater ports translates into jobs, higher incomes and greater productivity," said GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. "In every region of Georgia, employers rely on the ports of Savannah and Brunswick to help them become more competitive on the global stage."

To strengthen the Port of Savannah's ability to support the state's future economic growth, the GPA Board approved $66 million in terminal upgrades, including $24 million for the purchase of 10 additional rubber-tired gantry cranes.  

"The authority is committed to building additional capacity ahead of demand to ensure the Port of Savannah remains a trusted link in the supply chain serving Georgia and the Southeast," Lynch said.

The crane purchase will bring the fleet at Garden City Terminal to 156 RTGs. The new cranes will support three new container rows, which the board approved in March. The additional container rows will increase annual capacity at the Port of Savannah by 150,000 TEUs.

The RTGs will work over stacks that are five containers high and six deep, with a truck lane running alongside the stacks. Capable of running on electricity, the cranes will have a lift capacity of 50 metric tons.

The cranes will arrive in two batches of five in the first and second quarters of calendar year 2019.

 Also at Monday's meeting, the GPA Board elected its officers, with Jimmy Allgood as chairman, Will McKnight taking the position of vice chairman and Joel Wooten elected as the next secretary/treasurer.

For more information, visit gaports.com, or contact GPA Senior Director of Corporate Communications Robert Morris at (912) 964-3855 or rmorris@gaports.com.

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