QCD Calculator: Qualified Charitable Distribution vs. a Check (2026)

A QCD is money sent straight from your IRA to a charity, so that it never counts as your income (26 U.S.C. 408(d)(8)). The rules, from the statute and Publication 590-B:

• You must be at least 70½ on the day of the distribution. That is earlier than the age at which required distributions start (73 or 75, depending on your birth year).
• The trustee has to pay the charity directly, from an IRA or an inactive SEP or SIMPLE IRA, not from an employer plan such as a 401(k) and not from an ongoing SEP or SIMPLE.
• The charity must be one that can receive deductible gifts and is a public charity of the kind in 170(b)(1)(A): churches, schools, hospitals and most nonprofits. Not a donor-advised fund, a supporting organization or a private foundation.
• The limit is $111,000 per person for 2026 (it was $108,000 for 2025; IRS Notice 2025-67). A married couple with two IRAs can each give that much.
• You need the same written acknowledgment from the charity that you would need to deduct a gift, and you cannot also deduct the amount (408(d)(8)(E)).

Yes. Publication 590-B says a QCD counts toward your required minimum distribution, so a gift of $5,000 can satisfy $5,000 of a $25,000 requirement without adding $5,000 to your income. The enter-your-own-RMD box above shows how much of the requirement the QCD covers and how much is still to be taken by December 31. The QCD has to come out of an IRA you own (or inherited) in that year, and a QCD above the amount of your requirement is allowed too: it just comes out of your IRA on top. The RMD calculator on this site has the yearly amount.

It depends on whether you take the standard deduction and on what your income does to other 2026 rules. Three examples from the calculator (each compares the same gift from the same IRA distribution, so the IRA and the charity end up the same either way):

• Standard deduction, Social Security. Single, 75, $30,000 of Social Security, $20,000 of other income, a $25,000 IRA distribution and a $5,000 gift. By check the gift earns only the $1,000 allowance for non-itemizers, and $25,500 of the benefits are taxed; by QCD the income is $62,350 instead of $70,500 and $22,350 of the benefits are taxed. Federal tax is $5,194 by check and $4,336 by QCD: the QCD saves $858.
• Itemizing. Single, no Social Security, $120,000 of other income, a $50,000 IRA distribution, $35,000 of state and local taxes, $12,000 of mortgage interest and a $20,000 gift. By check the gift deducts $19,150 (the first 0.5% of income, $850, does not count), so itemizing is worth it and the QCD saves $451: only the floor and a bigger senior deduction. Itemizers gain much less from a QCD than people who take the standard deduction.
• Crossing a Medicare line. Single, $90,000 of other income, a $30,000 distribution, a $15,000 gift. By check your income for Medicare purposes is $120,000, over the $109,000 line; by QCD it is $105,000, under it. Federal tax falls by $3,278, and the Medicare surcharge a year (Part B $974.40 plus Part D $174.00) that the check route would trigger two years later disappears: $1,148.40.

Small gifts show the same pattern: for a single filer who takes the standard deduction, a check of $1,000 or less gets the whole non-itemizer allowance, so a QCD of that size saves little or nothing.

Three reasons, all in the calculator. A deduction lowers taxable income but not adjusted gross income, and AGI is what decides how much Social Security is taxed (up to 85%), how much of the $6,000 senior deduction is phased out (6% of income over $75,000, or $150,000 joint, for each person) and which Medicare line you land on. A QCD lowers AGI itself. Second, for 2026 only the part of itemized gifts above 0.5% of AGI is deductible (26 U.S.C. 170(b)(1)(I)); a QCD has no floor. Third, a QCD works whether or not you itemize; without itemizing, the new allowance is at most $1,000 ($2,000 joint).

Not from a 401(k): the statute covers an “individual retirement plan” other than an ongoing SEP or SIMPLE (an inactive one qualifies), and Publication 590-B describes the trustee of “your IRA” paying the charity. A Roth IRA is an IRA, but a QCD counts only to the extent the distribution would otherwise be taxable (408(d)(8)(B)); a qualified Roth distribution is not taxable anyway, so there is nothing for a QCD to exclude. Check the rules of an inherited IRA with your custodian: the 70½ test looks at the person for whom the IRA is maintained.

Your QCD exclusion is reduced by the IRA contributions you deducted for years since you reached 70½, less reductions already made in earlier years (408(d)(8)(A); Publication 590-B's QCD Adjustment Worksheet). Publication 590-B's example: Jim deducted $5,000 in each of two years ($10,000) and made QCDs of $6,000 in 2025, so none of the 2025 QCD is excludable and $4,000 of the reduction carries forward; his 2026 QCD of $6,500 then excludes $2,500. Enter the amount under “Deductions you would itemize, and other details” above.

The IRA custodian reports the whole distribution on Form 1099-R (Publication 590-B's list of box 7 codes includes Y, a QCD claimed by the taxpayer). On the 2025 Form 1040 the total goes on line 4a, the taxable part (zero for a full QCD) on line 4b, and you check the QCD box on line 4c. If your IRAs hold nondeductible contributions you also file Form 8606: Publication 590-B's example is a $25,000 distribution from an IRA of $30,000 with $10,000 of basis, which is a QCD of $20,000 (the taxable part comes out first), and the other $5,000 is a return of basis that she can deduct as a gift only if she itemizes. Forms for 2026 may differ.

The income-related surcharge on Part B and Part D uses your adjusted gross income plus tax-exempt interest from two years earlier, so 2026 income sets the 2028 surcharge. A QCD lowers AGI, so it can keep you under a line. The calculator applies the 2026 lines (the 2028 lines are not published, and the lines are indexed) to this year's income, which is an approximation. A life-changing event such as retirement can be appealed through the Social Security Administration. The IRMAA calculator on this site shows each line and the dollars left under it.

This tool does not model state tax and the state rules were not checked. Many states begin from federal adjusted gross income, which would carry the exclusion through, but that is not a rule you can assume; check your state's instructions.