If you are 70½ or older with a traditional IRA, there is a tax move that has been sitting in the code since 2006 and still gets overlooked every December.
It is called a qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, and it lets you send money straight from your IRA to a charity without it ever touching your taxable income.
Normally, any withdrawal from a traditional IRA lands on your tax return as ordinary income.
With a QCD, your IRA custodian wires the money directly to a qualified 501(c)(3).
You never take possession, so the IRS never counts it as income.
For 2025, the limit is $108,000 per person, up from $105,000 last year.
Married couples with separate IRAs can each use the full amount.
The transfer must come out of the IRA and land with the charity by December 31—there is no grace period into January like there is for some other contributions.
The 2017 tax law roughly doubled the standard deduction, which means millions of older Americans no longer get any write-off for charitable giving.
You get the tax benefit without needing to itemize.
The second group is anyone facing required minimum distributions.
Once you hit 73, the IRS forces you to pull money out of your IRA whether you need it or not, and that withdrawal can push you into a higher bracket or trigger higher Medicare Part B and Part D premiums.
A QCD counts toward your RMD, so you can satisfy the requirement while keeping the amount out of your adjusted gross income.
Lower AGI can protect you from the Social Security taxation formula, the net investment income tax, and various phaseouts that quietly shrink deductions.
It is not just about the charity—it is about what your tax return looks like at the top.
A few practical points before you call your custodian.
The charity must be a legitimate 501(c)(3); donor-advised funds and private foundations do not qualify.
You cannot send a QCD to a political campaign or a donor-advised fund account, no matter how convenient that would be.
Get the charity's full legal name and tax ID ready, because custodians ask.
Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard all process these, usually with a form on their website.
December is the busiest month for these requests, and a check that arrives in January does not count for this tax year.
One caveat: QCDs are not right for everyone.
If you are under 70½ or you itemize heavily and get full value from the charitable deduction, the math may not favor it.
Run your own numbers or talk to a tax professional. **Our take:** The QCD is one of the few tax breaks that rewards people for giving rather than for hiring a lawyer.
Final Thoughts
If you are charitably inclined and over 70½, ignoring it is leaving money on the table—and unlike most year-end tax strategies, this one actually helps someone besides you.