A qualified charitable distribution check works like this: you tell your IRA custodian to send money straight from your IRA to a qualifying charity, the custodian writes a check payable to that charity (not to you), and the amount leaves your account without being added to your taxable income for the year. For 2026, you can exclude up to $111,000 per person this way.1Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, as Adjusted for Cost-of-Living Increases The check can either be mailed by the custodian directly to the charity or sent to you to forward, as long as the charity is the sole payee.
Who Can Request the Check
You must be at least 70½ years old on the date the distribution actually leaves your IRA. Not the day you fill out the form, not the day the charity deposits the check — the date the funds move.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B – Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) That age is lower than the RMD start age of 73, so you can begin QCDs before mandatory withdrawals kick in.
Only certain accounts can be the source of the check:
- Traditional IRAs
- Rollover IRAs
- Inherited IRAs, where the beneficiary is 70½ or older (the original owner’s age doesn’t matter)
- SEP and SIMPLE IRAs that are inactive, meaning your employer isn’t currently contributing
A 401(k), 403(b), or pension plan cannot issue a QCD check. If that’s where your retirement money sits, you’d need to roll it into a traditional IRA first and then request the distribution from the IRA.
Requesting the Check From Your Custodian
The single feature that defines a QCD is the payee. The check has to be made payable to the charitable organization. If the custodian writes it to you personally and you then endorse it over to the charity, the IRS treats the whole thing as an ordinary taxable distribution, no matter what you do with the money afterward.
Most custodians run QCDs through a short intake: legal name of the charity, mailing address, dollar amount, source account. Many offer this through their online portal now; others still want a phone call or a paper form. Either way, you’re telling them who to write the check to and where it should go.
You get two delivery options. The custodian can mail the check directly to the charity, or the custodian can send the check to you and let you deliver or forward it. Both count as a direct transfer, because the check itself is payable only to the charity. The IRS has confirmed that a check made out to a charity and hand-delivered by the IRA owner still qualifies as a direct payment.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B – Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) Having it come to you first gives you more control over the timing, which matters near year-end.
The 2026 exclusion cap is $111,000 per person, indexed for inflation.1Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, as Adjusted for Cost-of-Living Increases Married couples with separate IRAs can each hit the full limit, for a combined $222,000.
Who the Check Can Be Written To
The payee must be a 501(c)(3) public charity eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions under Internal Revenue Code Section 170(b)(1)(A).3Internal Revenue Service. Exemption Requirements – 501(c)(3) Organizations Churches, hospitals, universities, and most community nonprofits fit. You can verify a specific organization through the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool before you tell your custodian to cut the check.
Several tax-exempt vehicles are specifically shut out, even though they look like charities:
- Donor-advised funds, even when housed at a qualifying public charity
- Private non-operating foundations, including family foundations
- Supporting organizations under Section 509(a)(3)
Foreign charities generally don’t qualify either. The statute requires a domestic organization. If your interest is overseas work, the check needs to go to a U.S.-based charity that runs the international program.
You also can’t receive anything of value in return. No event tickets, no membership perks, no premiums. The charity should send you a written acknowledgment stating that no goods or services were provided in exchange for the contribution.4Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Contributions – Written Acknowledgments
Getting the Check Delivered by December 31
The QCD has to be complete by December 31 of the year you want it counted. There’s no extension and no grace period. Requesting a QCD on December 28 can easily miss the deadline once you factor in the custodian’s processing queue and mail time.
If the custodian mails the check directly to the charity, build in lead time. If the check comes to you to forward, the timing rules split by delivery method. A check sent through the U.S. Postal Service counts as delivered on the postmark date, so mailing it by December 31 works. A check sent by a private carrier like FedEx or UPS only counts when it physically arrives. Close to year-end, USPS is the safer choice.
Financial advisors who handle QCDs for retirees generally recommend starting the request by early November to leave room for any administrative delay.
What the Check Does to Your RMD and AGI
If you’re 73 or older and subject to required minimum distributions, the QCD amount counts toward satisfying your RMD for the year.5Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs That is the whole point for most people who use them: you meet the mandatory withdrawal, but the money never lands in your adjusted gross income.
A lower AGI ripples outward. It can reduce or eliminate the IRMAA surcharge on Medicare Part B and Part D, keep more of your Social Security benefits from being taxed, and preserve eligibility for other income-tested benefits. For retirees taking the standard deduction, the AGI reduction from a QCD is usually worth more than a charitable deduction on Schedule A would have been.
You can’t take both benefits on the same dollars. If you exclude a QCD from income, you can’t also claim it as a charitable deduction. Pick one; for most retirees the exclusion is the stronger side.
Reporting the QCD on Your Return
What the 1099-R Will Show
Your custodian will issue Form 1099-R showing the full distribution in Box 1. Starting with tax year 2025, custodians use a new Box 7 distribution code “Y” to identify qualified charitable distributions.6Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498 Before code Y existed, QCDs looked identical to ordinary withdrawals on the form. Code Y is paired with Code 7 for a distribution from your own IRA, or Code 4 for a distribution from an inherited IRA.
Where It Goes on Form 1040
Enter the full distribution amount from the 1099-R on Line 4a. If the whole distribution was a QCD, enter zero on Line 4b. If only part of it was a QCD, enter the non-QCD portion on Line 4b as the taxable amount. Then check box 2 on Line 4c to flag that the distribution includes a QCD.7Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Form 1040 Older guidance had taxpayers write “QCD” next to Line 4b; the Line 4c checkbox replaced that.
Keep the Acknowledgment
Get a written acknowledgment from each charity that received a QCD check. It should list the date and amount and confirm that no goods or services were provided in return.4Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Contributions – Written Acknowledgments You don’t file it with your return, but you need it if the IRS asks. Ask for it shortly after the donation rather than during filing season.
Two Things That Can Reduce What You Expect
Deductible IRA Contributions Made After 70½
If you kept working and made deductible traditional IRA contributions after reaching 70½, those contributions reduce your QCD exclusion dollar for dollar on a cumulative basis. The offset carries forward across years until your total QCD exclusions catch up to your total post-70½ deductible contributions.8Legal Information Institute (Cornell Law). 26 USC 408(d)(8) – Qualified Charitable Distribution So a $7,000 deductible contribution at age 71 means your first $7,000 of QCDs isn’t excludable. Roth contributions and nondeductible traditional contributions don’t trigger the reduction.
State Treatment May Differ
Not every state follows the federal QCD exclusion. If you live in a state that taxes retirement income, your QCD might still show up as taxable on the state return even though it’s excluded federally. Check with your preparer before assuming the check is tax-free on both sides.