If I have appreciated property such as real estate or stock, is there any way I can destroy the tax benefits due to me and my trust when my charitable remainder trustee sells the property?

You can inadvertently turn lemonade into lemons in a number of ways, a few of which are particularly noteworthy: You can enter into preexisting "sale" paperwork before the asset is given to your charitable trust and risk the IRS's disallowance of your planning based upon step transaction or assignment of income theories. The property you are transferring can be encumbered by debt, which could very well disqualify it. You can forget to get a qualified appraisal by an independent appraiser and disqualify the property. You can violate the charitable foundation provisions of the tax laws. For example, you could innocently continue to live in a home you have transferred to your charitable trust. You can generate from the trust unrelated business income, which is income not related to the charitable purpose of your trust as determined by the IRS (there is no easy way to explain this further without going into great and boring detail), and disqualify it.