If you are 70½ or older and own a traditional IRA, you can ask your IRA custodian to send a gift directly from your IRA to the church. The IRS calls this a Qualified Charitable Distribution, or QCD.
Why it is attractive:
The amount you give is excluded from your taxable income. This helps even if you take the standard deduction, because you are not reporting the income in the first place.
If you are 73 or older, a QCD counts toward your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD), so the money you must withdraw each year can go to ministry instead of being taxed as income.
Lowering your adjusted gross income can also help keep other costs down, such as Medicare premiums and the taxation of Social Security benefits.
The rules:
You must be at least 70½ on the date of the gift. This is earlier than the current RMD starting age of 73, so you can begin giving this way before RMDs are required.
The money must go directly from the IRA custodian to the church. A check made out to you, even if you then give it to the church, does not qualify.
The limit for 2026 is $111,000 per person. Married couples with separate IRAs may each give up to that amount.
QCDs must come from an IRA, not from a 401(k) or 403(b) plan, and they cannot go to donor-advised funds.
Because a QCD is not taxable income, you do not also claim a charitable deduction for it.
To count for 2026, the distribution must be completed by December 31. Allow time for your custodian to process it.
Ask your custodian to include your name with the payment so the church can acknowledge your gift. You will report the QCD on your tax return, and your custodian will issue the tax form.
Contact
For more information, contact Larry Watson, Church Business Administrator.