Every December, Marjorie sat down at her kitchen table with her checkbook and her list: the church building fund, the food bank, the scholarship her sorority sponsored. She'd turned 73 that spring, so her IRA custodian had already sent the letter about her required minimum distribution. She took the RMD in November, set aside money for taxes, then wrote her checks from what was left. It felt generous. It also cost more than it needed to and had been costing her since she turned 70½, three years earlier.
Marjorie's mistake isn't generosity. It's sequencing. She let the distribution become taxable income first, then gave some of that income away. A qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, reverses the order: the money moves straight from the IRA to the charity and never becomes her income at all, while still counting toward her RMD. Same gift, smaller tax bill.
What's the difference between a QCD and donating your RMD after you receive it?
When Marjorie takes her RMD into her account and then writes a check to charity, the distribution counts as income first. If she itemizes, she can deduct the donation, but this year's tax law added a floor equal to 0.5% of AGI plus a reduced benefit for top-bracket filers. Some of her generosity stops counting.
A QCD skips that negotiation. Because the funds move directly from custodian to charity, the IRS never counts them as income. Nothing to deduct, nothing to exclude, no floor or cap. Up to $111,000 can move this way in 2026, with a separate limit per spouse.
Can you make a QCD before you're required to take an RMD?
Yes, and this is the part most people miss. QCD eligibility starts at 70½, which was the RMD age when the law was passed. Since then the RMD age requirement has inched up to 73 as of 2026; it will eventually become 75 in 2035, which is when anyone born in 1960 or later will need to begin RMDs. Even though Marjorie didn’t have to start RMDs until age 73, should could have started QCDs up to three years sooner.
Every dollar moved out of her IRA early is a dollar no longer generating a larger future RMD, assuming she doesn’t already need that money to fund her living expenses. Starting at 70½ instead of 73 shrinks the balance the RMD formula applies to, before the requirement even exists. The gifts Marjorie was already planning to make could have been reducing her future RMDs the whole time, instead of merely offsetting one she didn't yet have to take.
Do you still benefit if you don't itemize?
Most retirees don't itemize anymore due to the increases in the standard deduction. At 73, Marjorie's standard deduction $18,150, since single filers 65 or older get an additional $2,050 on top. For married filing jointly, the standard deduction is $35,500 when both spouses are age 65 or older. That's an even taller bar for a typical pattern of giving to clear, and it leaves people like Marjorie assuming they've lost any tax benefit from giving unless they bunch several years together.
A QCD sidesteps that. It isn't a deduction, so it doesn’t depend on itemizing deductions. Someone taking the standard deduction gets the same benefit as someone who itemizes: the income simply never appears. The tax code didn't stop rewarding their giving. It just changed which tool does the rewarding.
How does a QCD potentially lower Medicare premiums and tax on Social Security income?
Medicare premiums are based retroactively on your income from two years back, and the IRMAA surcharge moves in cliffs. In 2026, a single filer crosses into the first tier at $109,000 of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI); couples hit the cliff at $218,000. Cross it by a dollar and the full surcharge applies for the year, adding roughly $974 in Part B premiums per person.
The same AGI also determines how much of Social Security gets taxed, up to 85% of benefits. Since a QCD keeps money out of AGI entirely, it lowers both numbers at once. For a retiree near the IRMAA line, routing part of an RMD through a QCD instead of cash can mean standard premiums instead of a recurring surcharge, plus less Social Security taxed in the same stroke.
What does this look like for someone like Marjorie?
A $12,000 QCD to her church and food bank comes off her RMD dollar for dollar, and her taxable income and AGI drop by the same amount, which can matter for her IRMAA bracket and Social Security. Had she started at 70½ instead of 73, three more years of gifts would have been shrinking the balance her RMDs are calculated from. She gives what she planned either way. What changes is the order, and the timing.
To qualify a QCD transfer must come directly from the custodian to an eligible 501(c)(3) by December 31, and it can't go to a donor-advised fund. For anyone charitably inclined past 70½, that's worth a phone call. We help clients time these transfers so the giving they were already planning to do works harder for them.