How to Make a Qualified Charitable Distribution from an IRA

To make a qualified charitable distribution from an IRA, you instruct your IRA custodian to transfer money directly from your account to a qualifying public charity, with the check made payable to the charity rather than to you. The transferred amount stays out of your taxable income for the year, up to $111,000 per person in 2026.¹ The steps below walk through eligibility, the paperwork with your custodian, the rules that most often trip people up, and how to report the transfer on your tax return.

Confirm You Are Eligible

You must be at least 70½ on the date the distribution actually leaves your account. Not 70, and not turning 70½ later in the same calendar year. The age has to be satisfied on the transfer date itself.²

The money has to come from an eligible IRA. Traditional IRAs, rollover IRAs, and inherited IRAs all qualify. Roth IRAs are technically eligible, but there is rarely a reason to use one because Roth distributions are already tax-free in most situations. SEP and SIMPLE IRAs qualify only if they are inactive, meaning your employer made no contributions for the plan year ending within the tax year of the distribution.³ If your employer is still funding your SEP, you cannot use it for a QCD this year.

Choose an Eligible Charity

The recipient must be a public charity recognized under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code.⁴ Not every tax-exempt nonprofit counts. Three categories are specifically excluded:

Donor-advised funds, which are holding accounts where you recommend grants over time rather than deliver money to charitable use immediately.
Supporting organizations, which exist to support other charities instead of running programs themselves.
Private non-operating foundations, typically family foundations that make grants rather than run programs. Private operating foundations, which actively run their own programs, are eligible.

You can confirm any nonprofit’s status through the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search at irs.gov, using either the organization’s name or its employer identification number. Do this before you file paperwork with your custodian. If the transfer processes and the charity turns out to be ineligible, the full amount becomes a taxable distribution.²

Before you contact your custodian, gather three things about the charity: its full legal name as registered with the IRS (sometimes different from the name on its website), its nine-digit employer identification number, and the mailing address where it receives donation checks.

Submit the Request to Your Custodian

Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, and most other major custodians have a dedicated QCD or charitable distribution form. You can usually find it inside your online account or by calling the retirement services line. The form will ask for the dollar amount, the tax year the gift should apply to, and the charity’s details.

One instruction on that form matters more than any other: the check must be made payable directly to the charity, not to you. If the check is made out in your name and you deposit it, even briefly, the entire amount is treated as a taxable withdrawal.³

Some custodians require a medallion signature guarantee for larger transfers. Thresholds vary by institution. You obtain the guarantee in person at a bank, credit union, or brokerage that participates in a medallion program. It cannot be done online or by mail, so build time into your schedule if your custodian requires one.

Once the form is processed, the custodian will either mail the check directly to the charity or send it to you to forward. If it comes to you, do not cash or deposit it. Forward it to the charity promptly. Delivery generally runs one to two weeks.

To count toward a specific tax year, the transfer must be completed by December 31, meaning actually processed and delivered, not just requested. Custodians get overwhelmed in late December. Starting the paperwork in October or November is a reasonable buffer.

Accept No Benefits in Return

This is where a surprising number of QCDs go wrong. You cannot receive anything of value from the charity in exchange for the gift. No gala tickets, no thank-you dinners, no membership benefits, no raffle entries. With a standard donation you can subtract the fair market value of any benefit received and deduct the rest. A QCD does not work that way. Any quid pro quo benefit disqualifies the entire transfer, not just the value of the benefit.⁵

If a charity automatically issues membership perks or event invitations at certain giving levels, contact them before the transfer and decline the benefits in writing. Ask that their written acknowledgment of the gift confirm no goods or services were provided in exchange.⁶ Keep that letter with your tax records.

If the QCD Will Also Satisfy Your RMD

Starting at age 73, you have to withdraw a minimum amount from your traditional IRA each year.⁷ A QCD can satisfy that required minimum distribution while keeping the money out of your taxable income.

The order of withdrawals matters. The IRS treats the first dollars out of your IRA each year as satisfying your RMD. A QCD taken early in the year counts. But if you take a regular cash withdrawal first, that withdrawal uses up your RMD, and you cannot go back and reclassify it as a QCD later. If your RMD is $30,000 and you plan to send $30,000 to charity, run the QCD first. Taking $30,000 in cash in January and then sending $30,000 as a QCD in March leaves you with $30,000 of taxable income you could have avoided.

Your QCD is allowed to exceed your RMD. If your RMD is $25,000 and you send $40,000 through a QCD, the first $25,000 satisfies the RMD and the remaining $15,000 is additional tax-free charitable giving, up to the annual limit.

Know the 2026 Limits

The maximum you can exclude through QCDs in 2026 is $111,000. If both spouses are at least 70½, each can exclude up to $111,000 from their own IRA, for a household total of $222,000.¹ Anything above the limit is treated as an ordinary taxable distribution at your regular income tax rate.

If your IRA holds both deductible and nondeductible (after-tax) contributions, a QCD is treated as coming first from the taxable portion.⁸ Regular IRA withdrawals force a pro-rata split between taxable and nontaxable money on every dollar. QCDs skip that math and drain the taxable money first, leaving your after-tax basis in the account for later withdrawals.

The One-Time Split-Interest Option

SECURE 2.0 added a once-per-lifetime election that lets you use a QCD to fund a charitable gift annuity, charitable remainder annuity trust, or charitable remainder unitrust. For 2026, the cap on this election is $55,000, and it counts against your overall $111,000 annual limit.¹ The vehicle must pay at least 5% annually, and only you or your spouse can receive the income stream. You cannot spread the transfer across two tax years, and any use of the election exhausts the lifetime cap. If you go this route, attach a statement to your tax return for the year of the election.⁸

Report It Correctly on Your Return

In January or February following the year of your QCD, your custodian will issue Form 1099-R showing total distributions from the account. For 2025 reporting and going forward, custodians use a new distribution Code Y in Box 7 to flag a QCD, alongside Code 7 for a normal distribution or Code 4 for an inherited IRA distribution.⁹

On Form 1040, report the total distribution on line 4a. If the entire distribution was a QCD, enter zero on line 4b and check box 2 on line 4c.¹⁰ If only part of the distribution was a QCD, put the non-QCD portion on line 4b. If your IRA also held nondeductible contributions and you took non-QCD distributions during the year, file Form 8606 to handle the basis calculations on the non-QCD portion.¹¹

Keep the charity’s written acknowledgment showing the amount received and confirming that no goods or services were provided. The IRS does not require you to attach it, but you will need it if your return is examined.

Do Not Also Claim a Charitable Deduction

A QCD gives you one tax benefit, the exclusion from income. You cannot also claim the same amount as an itemized charitable deduction on Schedule A.¹² If the QCD is nontaxable, it cannot appear as a deduction. Double-counting is not allowed.

Check Your State’s Treatment

Not every state follows the federal QCD exclusion. A handful of states require you to add the QCD back to state taxable income, so the transfer is taxed at the state level even though it is excluded federally. Other states exempt retirement income entirely, in which case the distinction doesn’t matter. If your state has an income tax, confirm how it treats QCDs before you assume the transfer is completely tax-free.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2025-67, 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts
3
Internal Revenue Service. Seniors Can Reduce Their Tax Burden by Donating to Charity Through Their IRA
4
Internal Revenue Service. Exemption Requirements – 501(c)(3) Organizations
5
Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Contributions – Quid Pro Quo Contributions
6
Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Contributions – Written Acknowledgments
7
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
8
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1040
9
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498
10
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements
11
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
12
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 526, Charitable Contributions