Donating BCE Shares Yields Tax Benefit

Susan Levesque (née Grimshaw), an investment adviser with National Bank Financial, has been counselling her clients for years about the financial benefits of donating stocks to charity.

Earlier this year, the 1971 nursing graduate took her own advice, transferring 75 shares of BCE to U of T to support the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing.

Levesque’s decision is timely because BCE shareholders have agreed to sell their shares to the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan for $42.75 each. Shareholders will have no choice but to part with their BCE stock. By choosing to donate her shares to U of T instead of selling them, Levesque will not have to pay any tax on the capital gain she would have earned with the sale. In addition, she will receive a charitable receipt for the full value of her shares. “I’ve always pointed out the advantage of giving shares that have appreciated in value,” she says. “If gifting is something my clients wish to do, then we always consider the possibility of stocks.”

Even though Levesque hasn’t worked in nursing for more than 25 years (she taught in U of T’s department of preventive medicine in the mid 1970s), she keeps in touch with members of her graduating class. Last year, she hosted a 35th reunion lunch for about 30 women. “Nursing has always been near and dear to my heart,” she says.