If you’re over 70½ and charitably inclined, a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) lets you send money straight from your IRA to a charity and exclude it from your taxable income entirely — a bigger benefit than a regular charitable deduction, because it works even if you claim the standard deduction. For 2026, the QCD limit rises to $111,000 per person, up from $108,000 in 2025, under the inflation adjustments in IRS Notice 2025-67.
The Age Rule Is Stricter Than It Looks
You must have actually reached age 70½ — not merely turned 70 sometime during the year — on the date of the distribution. This is a different (and older) threshold than the age-73/75 Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) start age, which trips people up: you can make QCDs years before your RMDs even begin.
How QCDs Offset Your RMD
Once you’re subject to Required Minimum Distributions, a QCD counts toward satisfying that year’s RMD, dollar for dollar, up to the $111,000 cap — even though the distributed amount never shows up as taxable income. This is the core appeal: you satisfy the RMD requirement and avoid the tax hit on that portion at the same time, rather than taking the RMD as income and then donating it separately (which would show up as income first and a deduction second, only helping if you itemize).
The Married-Couple Math
The $111,000 limit is per person, per year — not per household. Each spouse with their own IRA can direct up to $111,000 to charity via QCD, meaning a married couple could exclude up to $222,000 combined in 2026 if both spouses are QCD-eligible and have sufficient IRA balances.
Mechanics That Matter
The distribution must go directly from the IRA custodian to the charity — if the check is made out to you and you forward it, it doesn’t count as a QCD. It must go to a qualifying 501(c)(3) public charity, not to a donor-advised fund, private foundation, or supporting organization, which is a key difference from the donor-advised fund bunching strategy covered elsewhere on this site. QCDs are only available from traditional IRAs (and inherited IRAs) — not from 401(k)s or other employer plans directly, though those can sometimes be rolled into an IRA first.
The One-Time Split-Interest Option
A lesser-known 2026 provision allows a one-time QCD of up to $55,000 (up from $54,000 in 2025) to fund a charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder trust, giving you an income stream back while still getting the exclusion — a niche option, but worth knowing if a larger legacy gift is part of your plan.
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