Qualified Charitable Distributions: Give From Your IRA and Skip the Tax on Your RMD

If you're charitably inclined and old enough to have money in a traditional IRA you don't fully need, there's a way to give that is often more tax-efficient than writing a check: a qualified charitable distribution, or QCD. Done correctly, the gift goes straight from your IRA to the charity, counts toward your required minimum distribution, and never shows up in your taxable income. For many retirees that last part is the whole point.

What is a qualified charitable distribution?

A QCD is a direct transfer of funds from your IRA custodian to a qualified charity. Instead of the money coming to you (and landing on your tax return) and then going to the charity, it bypasses your income entirely. The IRS allows IRA owners who are age 70½ or older to exclude these distributions from gross income.

Note the age: QCD eligibility begins at 70½, which is earlier than the age most people must start taking RMDs. Since the SECURE Act changes, the RMD starting age is 73 for most people retiring today (and rises to 75 for those born in 1960 or later), so there's a window of a couple of years where you can make QCDs before RMDs are even required.

How does a QCD lower your taxes?

The benefit is different from a normal charitable deduction, and often better. A QCD isn't a deduction at all — it's an exclusion from income. That matters because your income affects far more than your tax bracket. It feeds into how much of your Social Security is taxable, your Medicare premium surcharges (IRMAA), and other income-tested items. Lowering the income figure itself, rather than claiming a deduction against it, can ripple through all of those. In that sense it's one of several levers — alongside Roth conversions — for managing the income figure that drives those thresholds.

It also helps the roughly nine in ten taxpayers who take the standard deduction and therefore get no benefit from itemizing charitable gifts. With a QCD, you don't need to itemize to come out ahead. One thing you can't do is both: an amount excluded from income as a QCD can't also be claimed as an itemized charitable deduction — it's one or the other.

Can a QCD satisfy my required minimum distribution?

Yes — and this is where it's most powerful. A QCD counts toward your RMD for the year, up to the amount you give. If your RMD is $30,000 and you direct $30,000 to charity through a QCD, you've satisfied the requirement without adding a dollar to your taxable income. If your giving is smaller than your RMD, the QCD covers that portion and the rest is taxed normally. Order matters, though: the QCD only offsets the RMD if it happens before you've otherwise withdrawn that money. Once you've taken your full RMD in cash, a later QCD doesn't retroactively undo the taxable withdrawal — so plan the charitable transfer early in the year, not after you've already drawn the account down. Coordinating this with the rest of your year-end tax picture is worth doing deliberately — see our note on the mid-year tax checkup for retirees for how RMDs and withholding fit together.

How much can you give in 2026?

For 2026, the annual QCD limit rose to $111,000 per person, up from $108,000 in 2025, per the IRS retirement-plan inflation adjustments (Notice 2025-67). A married couple with separate IRAs can each give up to that amount. There's also a one-time election to direct up to $55,000 of a QCD to a split-interest vehicle such as a charitable remainder trust or charitable gift annuity — an amount that counts within the $111,000, not on top of it.

What are the rules that trip people up?

The details matter here, because a QCD done incorrectly is just a taxable withdrawal:

• It must come from an IRA. Traditional IRAs qualify, as do inherited IRAs (as long as you, the beneficiary, are 70½ or older) and inactive SEP or SIMPLE IRAs. QCDs are not allowed from a 401(k) or 403(b). If your money is in a workplace plan, you'd need to roll it to an IRA first. (If you've inherited an IRA, its required-withdrawal rules and QCDs can interact — worth checking before you give.)
• The transfer must go directly from the custodian to the charity. If the money passes through your hands first, it doesn't qualify.
• The charity must be eligible. It has to be a qualifying 501(c)(3). Donor-advised funds, private foundations, and supporting organizations do not qualify for QCD treatment.
• You get no benefit in return. As with any deductible gift, you can't receive something of value (event tickets, a dinner) for the donated amount.
• The deadline is December 31 — and the money has to actually be out. Unlike IRA contributions, there's no grace period into the next year. For QCD checks, the gift generally isn't complete until the check clears your IRA, so a check mailed in late December that the charity doesn't cash until January can land in the wrong tax year. Don't leave it to the final week.

One more wrinkle: if you make deductible IRA contributions after age 70½, the amount you can exclude as a QCD is reduced by those contributions. If you're still working and funding an IRA, mention it to whoever prepares your return.

The bottom line

A QCD is one of the cleaner tax moves available to charitably minded retirees: it turns money you may be required to withdraw anyway into a gift that never touches your taxable income. Whether it beats your other giving options depends on your specifics — your RMD size, whether you itemize, your Medicare and Social Security picture, and which accounts hold your money. The mechanics are strict but not complicated, and the December 31 deadline is firm, so it's better decided in the fall than in the last week of the year.