If you are 70½ or older, the IRS lets you send money straight from an IRA to a charity.
It is called a qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, and it can count toward your required minimum distribution once you hit 73.
The money goes from your retirement account to the charity without ever landing in your checking account, so it never shows up as taxable income on your return.
That matters more than ever because the standard deduction jumped again.
Fewer households itemize now, which means fewer people get a write-off for charitable gifts.
A QCD sidesteps that problem because you are not deducting anything.
You are keeping income off your return in the first place.
For 2025, you can give up to $108,000 per person directly from an IRA.
A married couple with separate IRAs can each do that, doubling the total.
The cap is indexed, so expect it to creep higher in later years, though it will not help anyone under 70½.
The gift has to leave the account by December 31 to count for that tax year, and it must go directly to the charity.
If you withdraw the money first and write a check, the IRS treats it as a normal distribution.
Ask your IRA custodian for their QCD form, usually a one-page request.
You need the charity's legal name and tax ID.
You do not report the gift on your return, but you will want proof if questions come up.
One more wrinkle: not every account qualifies.
QCDs work with traditional and Roth IRAs, but not with 401(k)s, 403(b)s, or SEP and SIMPLE IRAs while you are still working.
You can sometimes roll those into an IRA first, but check the rules before moving money.
Charities like it because the gift arrives clean and fast.
You like it because a chunk of your RMD never touches your taxable income, which can protect Social Security taxation and Medicare premium surcharges tied to income.
The takeaway is that this is one of the few tax breaks that rewards planning ahead rather than scrambling in April.
Final Thoughts
If you are charitably inclined and sitting on a large IRA, run the numbers with a tax pro before the calendar flips.