What Is a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD)?

A qualified charitable distribution is a direct transfer of money from your IRA to an eligible charity that is excluded entirely from your taxable income. For 2026, you can move up to $111,000 per person this way. Because a QCD reduces your adjusted gross income rather than working as a deduction, it can also lower your Medicare premiums and keep more of your Social Security benefits out of federal tax.¹

Who Can Make One

You have to be at least 70½ on the date the distribution actually leaves your IRA, not when you send the paperwork and not when the charity gets the check.² Turn 70½ on June 15 and a distribution processed June 14 is just a taxable withdrawal.

Eligible accounts include Traditional IRAs, Rollover IRAs, and Inherited IRAs. Inactive SEP and SIMPLE IRAs also qualify, meaning the employer made no contributions to the plan for the tax year in which the QCD occurs.³ A SEP or SIMPLE that’s still receiving employer contributions is off limits.

Workplace plans like 401(k)s and 403(b)s can’t be used. The statute limits QCDs to individual retirement plans and excludes employer-sponsored accounts.² If you want those funds to fund a charitable gift, roll them into a Traditional IRA first and make the QCD from there. Roth IRAs are technically eligible, but Roth distributions are already tax-free, so routing them through a QCD saves nothing.

How Much You Can Give in 2026

The annual cap is $111,000 per person for 2026, up from $108,000 in 2025.¹ SECURE 2.0 indexed the limit to inflation, so it adjusts each year. Married couples who each own an IRA can give up to $111,000 apiece, or $222,000 combined.

SECURE 2.0 also created a one-time option to direct up to $55,000 from your IRA into a split-interest vehicle such as a charitable remainder trust or charitable gift annuity.¹ It’s a lifetime election, usable once, and the $55,000 counts within the $111,000 annual cap rather than on top of it. The trust or annuity has to name only you, your spouse, or both of you as income beneficiaries.

Which Charities Qualify

The recipient has to be a public charity eligible for tax-deductible contributions under Section 170(b)(1)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code.² That covers churches, universities, hospitals, community foundations, and similar organizations. You can confirm status through the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool.

Several 501(c)(3) organizations are carved out and cannot receive QCDs:

Donor-advised funds are specifically excluded by statute.
Supporting organizations are excluded even though they exist to support other charities.
Private non-operating foundations, which primarily make grants rather than run programs, don’t qualify.

Private operating foundations, those that actively run their own charitable programs, do qualify.⁴ One rule catches donors off guard: you can’t receive anything of value in return. Event tickets, dinner, or auction items disqualify the transfer, so charity galas and golf tournaments are out even when part of the ticket price would normally be deductible.

Why a QCD Beats a Regular Deduction

Take a normal IRA withdrawal and donate the cash, and the distribution still shows up as income on your return. You can claim a charitable deduction, but only if you itemize. Most retirees take the standard deduction, so the gift produces no extra tax benefit. A QCD sidesteps that. The money never enters your adjusted gross income, and you still take the full standard deduction on top of it.

Lower AGI produces effects a deduction can’t. Medicare Part B and Part D premiums step up at income thresholds. For 2026, individual filers with modified AGI above $109,000, or $218,000 for joint filers, start paying a surcharge that can more than triple the standard Part B premium, from $202.90 per month up to $689.90 at the highest bracket.⁵ A QCD that keeps your AGI below one of those thresholds can save thousands in annual premiums.⁶

Social Security benefits also become partially taxable once combined income exceeds $25,000 for single filers or $32,000 for joint filers. Holding AGI down through a QCD helps preserve more of those benefits from federal tax.

How QCDs Work With Required Minimum Distributions

At age 73, the IRS requires annual withdrawals from your Traditional IRA.⁷ QCDs count toward that requirement.⁸ If your RMD is $20,000 and you send $15,000 to your church as a QCD, that $15,000 satisfies part of the RMD tax-free. You then withdraw the remaining $5,000 as a personal distribution, and only that $5,000 is taxable.

Timing matters. The IRS treats the first dollars out of your IRA each year as satisfying your RMD. Take a $10,000 personal distribution in February and you can’t reclassify it as a QCD later. Completed RMD amounts can’t be rolled back in. Make the QCD early in the year, or at least before personal withdrawals have fully satisfied the RMD.

The QCD age threshold of 70½ is lower than the RMD age of 73. In that gap, QCDs let you draw down the IRA balance and reduce future RMDs before mandatory withdrawals begin.

The Post-70½ Deductible Contribution Offset

If you’re still working past 70½ and taking deductions for Traditional IRA contributions, those deductions reduce your available QCD amount dollar-for-dollar. The reduction is cumulative and carries forward across tax years until it’s fully absorbed.²

Say you contribute $7,000 to your Traditional IRA at age 71 and deduct it. The following year you attempt a full $111,000 QCD. Only $104,000 qualifies for exclusion; the other $7,000 is treated as ordinary taxable income because the earlier deduction offset it. Nondeductible Traditional IRA contributions and Roth IRA contributions don’t trigger the reduction. If you plan to lean on QCDs, direct post-70½ savings to a Roth instead.

How to Request a QCD From Your Custodian

Contact your IRA custodian and ask for a QCD or charitable distribution request form. You’ll provide:

The charity’s legal name, since the check must be payable to the organization and not to you.
The charity’s Employer Identification Number.
The mailing address for the check.
Your IRA account number.

The payee line is the detail that matters most. A check made out to you gets coded as a regular taxable distribution, and correcting that later is difficult and sometimes impossible within the same tax year. Some custodians mail the check to the charity; others send it to you to forward. If it comes to you, deliver it promptly and don’t route it through your bank account. Confirm as well that the custodian isn’t withholding federal income tax. QCDs aren’t subject to withholding, but a generic distribution form may trigger the default rate.

The December 31 Deadline

A QCD counts for the tax year in which the money leaves your IRA, not when the charity deposits the check. Funds must be out of the account by December 31, and no extensions apply. Custodians get flooded with year-end requests, and processing can take two to four weeks, so a late-December submission may not clear until January. September or October is a safer window.

Reporting the QCD on Your Tax Return

Your custodian issues a Form 1099-R showing the full distribution. Beginning with 2025 returns, custodians may use a new Code Y in Box 7 to flag the distribution as a QCD, but the code is optional, so your 1099-R may not identify the transfer as charitable.⁹ Correct reporting is on you either way.

On Form 1040, put the full distribution on line 4a. On line 4b, enter only the taxable portion, which is zero if the entire distribution was a QCD. Then check box 2 on line 4c to indicate a qualified charitable distribution was included.¹⁰ The checkbox replaced the older practice of writing “QCD” next to line 4b. If only part of the distribution was a QCD, the non-QCD portion goes on line 4b.

You also need a written acknowledgment from the charity confirming receipt and stating that you received no goods or services in return.¹¹ Get the letter before you file. Charities don’t always send it automatically, so request it. It’s the documentation the IRS will look for if the exclusion is questioned.

1
Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, as Adjusted for Changes in Cost-of-Living
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code Section 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts
3
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code Section 170 – Charitable, Etc., Contributions and Gifts
5
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 2026 Medicare Parts B Premiums, Deductibles
6
Social Security Administration. Premiums: Rules for Higher-Income Beneficiaries
7
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
8
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
9
IRS. Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498
10
Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Form 1040
11
Internal Revenue Service. Substantiating Charitable Contributions