Taxes

By the Retiree Report Editorial Team · Updated 2026-05-22 · 7 min read

This article is general information, not financial, tax, or legal advice. Consult a licensed professional before acting on it.

Qualified charitable distributions in 2026: the $111,000 IRA giving move

You can send up to $111,000 from a traditional IRA straight to a qualified charity in 2026, and the money never lands on your tax return. That single mechanic, called a qualified charitable distribution, is why a growing share of donors over 70½ have quietly stopped writing personal checks to their parish, library, or food bank. The 2026 inflation adjustment lifts the per-person cap from $108,000 last year to $111,000.

What a QCD actually is

A QCD is a direct trustee-to-charity transfer from your IRA. Your custodian cuts the check (or wires the funds) to a 501(c)(3) public charity, and you never personally take possession. Because the IRS never sees it as a distribution to you, it doesn’t go on line 4b of the 1040, doesn’t raise your AGI, and doesn’t bump your Medicare premiums two years later.

The rule lives in section 408(d)(8) of the tax code. Per IRS Publication 590-B, the source IRA can be a traditional or rollover IRA. It can’t be a SEP or SIMPLE plan you’re still actively contributing to. Roth IRAs technically qualify but make no sense as a source — that money was already taxed on the way in.

The receiving organization has to be eligible for tax-deductible contributions. Donor-advised funds, private non-operating foundations, and supporting organizations are out. So is anything where you get a benefit back. Gala tickets, raffle entries, and naming-rights bundles with perks all spoil the transfer.

Who qualifies in 2026, and for how much

Two numbers and one age. You have to be 70½ on the date of the distribution — not on the date of your next birthday, and not when you file your return. The 2026 annual cap is $111,000 per person, up from $108,000 in 2025, after the IRS released the inflation adjustment for retirement accounts under Notice 2025-67.

A married couple each gets their own $111,000 cap. So a couple where both spouses have IRAs can move up to $222,000 in a single year. There’s also a one-time lifetime election to fund a charitable gift annuity or a charitable remainder trust through a QCD; that limit rises to $55,000 in 2026 from $54,000 last year. SECURE 2.0 indexed both numbers for inflation starting in 2024, which is why they finally creep up each year instead of sitting stuck at $100,000 like they did for a decade.

One wrinkle worth knowing. If you kept working past 70½ and deducted contributions to a traditional IRA, those deductible contributions reduce the QCD amount you can exclude from income later. Put $7,000 into your IRA at age 72 and deducted it? Future QCDs are offset dollar-for-dollar by that $7,000 until the offset is used up. Pub 590-B has a worksheet.

Why does the math beat just writing a check?

Two reasons, and one of them got bigger this year.

Fewer retirees itemize. The 2026 standard deduction is $16,100 for a single filer and $32,200 for a married couple filing jointly, per the IRS 2026 inflation release. Add the extra deduction for being 65 or older, and a typical retired couple shields more than $35,000 before they count a dollar of mortgage interest or state tax. If a $5,000 cash donation doesn’t push you over that floor, the gift produces zero federal tax savings on a normal return.

A QCD sidesteps the itemize-or-not argument completely. The money never enters your income, so the deduction question doesn’t even apply.

The 2025 tax law — the One, Big, Beautiful Bill — also added a 0.5%-of-AGI floor for itemizers’ charitable deductions starting in 2026. On $200,000 of AGI, your first $1,000 of charitable giving isn’t deductible at all. High-bracket donors hit a second ceiling: the law caps the tax-rate value of itemized deductions at 35% for filers otherwise sitting in the 37% bracket. Neither floor nor ceiling touches a QCD, because a QCD isn’t an itemized deduction in the first place.

The non-itemizer side did get a small consolation. Starting in 2026, single filers can deduct $1,000 of cash giving above the line, and joint filers $2,000, even on a standard-deduction return. That helps small donors. It doesn’t move the needle for someone giving five figures to a hospital or alma mater.

The IRMAA angle and other ripple effects

This is where the strategy earns its keep.

RMDs drive AGI, and AGI drives a lot of downstream math. If you’re 73 or older, your required minimum distribution from a traditional IRA is income whether you want it or not. SECURE 2.0 pushed the RMD start age from 72 to 73 in 2023 and lifts it again to 75 in 2033. A QCD counts toward your RMD up to the $111,000 cap. So a $20,000 RMD fully satisfied by a $20,000 QCD is a $20,000 reduction in this year’s AGI compared with taking the cash and then writing a check.

That cut shows up in unexpected places. Medicare Part B and Part D surcharges (IRMAA) are based on the AGI from two tax years back. The 2026 IRMAA brackets start adding to Part B premiums above $109,000 in MAGI for singles and $218,000 for couples. Crossing one tier can cost a single retiree more than $1,000 a year in extra premiums for nothing in return. A QCD that keeps you a few hundred dollars below the next bracket is essentially free money. Our IRMAA threshold guide shows exactly where each cliff sits this year.

Lower AGI does more than dodge IRMAA. It shrinks the share of Social Security benefits that get taxed, can keep you under the net investment income tax, and may keep you below state-level surtaxes too. None of that works with an after-the-fact check, because a check never touched your AGI to begin with.

Want a concrete example? Take a single retiree, age 75, with a $24,000 RMD she’d otherwise pull in January and $7,500 a year she gives to her church. If she takes the full RMD in cash and then writes the checks, her AGI is $24,000 higher and she likely can’t deduct the gift — it’s below her standard deduction even with the 65+ bump. If instead she instructs her IRA custodian to send $7,500 directly to the church and takes the remaining $16,500 as a cash distribution, her AGI is $7,500 lower, the IRMAA risk drops, and the church receives the same money in the same week.

How to set one up without tripping

A QCD is simple in concept and very easy to break mechanically. Three things to get right.

The check has to come from the IRA custodian and go directly to the charity. If your custodian sends it to you and you forward it, the IRS treats it as a regular taxable distribution. Most large custodians let you write QCD checks yourself from an IRA “checkbook,” but those checks have to be cashed by the charity by December 31, not just mailed by December 31. Send checks in early December, not late.

Get an acknowledgment letter the same way you’d ask for one for any large gift. The AARP guide for older investors makes the same point: the charity should confirm in writing that you received “no goods or services” in exchange. Without that letter, the IRS can deny the exclusion if you’re ever asked.

Last point, and this one catches people every single year. Your 1099-R from the custodian won’t break out the QCD portion. The IRA custodian reports the full distribution as taxable on the form, and it’s on you (or your tax preparer) to flag the QCD on lines 4a and 4b of the 1040 with “QCD” written in the margin. Skip that step and you’ll pay tax on money that should have been excluded. Tell your preparer in advance, in writing, with the dollar amount and the charity name.

This is a tax-planning move, not a personalized recommendation; talk it through with a CPA or fee-only advisor before you act on anything close to the annual cap, especially if you’re juggling Roth conversions or other AGI levers in the same year. Our RMD primer for 2026 covers the underlying deadline mechanics in more detail.

What to remember

The 2026 cap is $111,000 per person, the age floor stays at 70½, and the dollar comes off your AGI rather than your itemized deductions. That last detail — AGI, not deduction — is why a QCD often beats a check for retirees who would otherwise take the standard deduction. If your giving for the year would just sit on the 1040 doing nothing, sending it directly from your IRA changes the math. And if you’re already at or near an IRMAA bracket, the dollar-for-dollar AGI cut may be worth more than the gift itself.