If you're 70½ or older, there's a tax move sitting inside your IRA that most retirees never use.
It's called a qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, and it lets you send money straight from your IRA to a charity without it ever counting as taxable income.
Newer rules pushed the age for required minimum distributions to 73 for many people, and standard deductions have grown.
That combination means fewer retirees itemize, which kills the write-off they used to get for giving.
You tell your IRA custodian to send a check or transfer directly to a qualified charity.
The money goes from the account to the charity.
It never touches your checking account, so it never shows up as income on your tax return.
A lower adjusted gross income can protect you in ways people don't always notice.
It can reduce the taxable portion of your Social Security, keep you under income thresholds for Medicare premium surcharges, and trim the bite of capital gains.
For 2025, you can give up to $108,000 per person through QCDs, and the limit is indexed for inflation.
A married couple with separate IRAs can each use that full amount.
The gift also counts toward your required minimum distribution once you hit RMD age, which can satisfy that obligation without adding a dollar to your taxable income.
The charity must be a qualified 501(c)(3), and it can't be a private foundation or a donor-advised fund.
You must be at least 70½ on the date of the gift.
You can't take a charitable deduction for the same dollars, but that's fine, since the whole point is avoiding income rather than chasing a write-off.
One strategy gaining attention is the once-per-lifetime option to fund a charitable gift annuity or a charitable remainder trust with up to $54,000 in 2025.
That lets you give now and still receive income later, though these are more complex and worth a conversation with a tax professional.
If you're charitably inclined and have a traditional IRA you don't need, run the math.
Compare giving cash and taking the deduction against sending the money straight from the IRA.
For many households that no longer itemize, the QCD wins.
Transfers can take a few weeks, and deadlines for the tax year are firm.
The QCD is one of the few pieces of the tax code that rewards giving without a catch.
Final Thoughts
If you're past 70½ and writing checks to charity anyway, you may be leaving an easy win on the table.