Reducing Future Taxes or Balancing Portfolio

If you have cash equal to the donated amount, you can buy shares to replace the donated ones. The replacement shares carry a higher basis than the low-basis lot you gave away, reducing future income taxes. To rebalance, buy different shares instead. You are effectively resetting basis at no tax cost: the appreciation leaves your balance sheet as a deduction instead of a taxable gain, and the replacement shares start fresh. Repeat it and the portfolio’s embedded gain stays permanently low without your ever paying to harvest it. Note there is no wash-sale problem here — that rule applies to realized losses, and a donation realizes nothing.