QCD rules for 2026: the $111,000 limit, RMDs and Roth conversions

You must be at least 70½ on the day the gift leaves your IRA. Your total QCDs for 2026 can be up to $111,000. That is up from $108,000 in 2025, per IRS Notice 2025-67.

The money has to go from your IRA custodian straight to a public charity. Your church, a food bank or a hospital usually qualifies. A donor-advised fund, a supporting organization or most private foundations do not.

You get no charitable deduction for a QCD. Instead, the gift never shows up in your taxable income, which is often worth more to you.

A QCD is money your IRA custodian sends straight to a qualifying charity. You must be at least 70½ when it happens. The amount is left out of your income, up to $111,000 for 2026. That limit is per person. If you and your spouse each have an IRA, you can each give up to $111,000.

The check must go from your IRA to the charity. If the money passes through your bank account first, it's a normal taxable withdrawal. Donor-advised funds and supporting organizations don't qualify. You need the same written receipt you'd need for a deduction.

QCDs come from IRAs, not from a 401(k) or 403(b). An ongoing SEP or SIMPLE IRA doesn't qualify either. You can't also take a charitable deduction for the amount.

Yes. A QCD counts toward your required minimum distribution (RMD). That is the yearly withdrawal the IRS requires from traditional IRAs. It starts at 73 if you were born 1951 to 1959, or 75 if you were born in 1960 or later.

This is where QCDs and conversions connect. The IRS treats the first dollars out of your IRA each year as your RMD. An RMD can never be converted. Give your RMD to charity with a QCD, and the RMD no longer adds to your income. That leaves more room in your bracket to convert.

Between 70½ and your RMD age, a QCD satisfies no RMD, but it still lowers your IRA balance and your future RMDs. To see your own RMD, try RMD calculator.

They do different jobs. A QCD is a tax-efficient way to give money away now. A conversion is a way to pay tax now so you, your spouse or your heirs pay less later.

Your giving plans and your heirs' tax brackets usually decide it.

• QCD only: you give regularly, your RMDs already fill your bracket, and converting would push you into a higher rate or a Medicare surcharge.
• Conversion only: you're under 70½, or you don't give much to charity, and you expect higher tax rates later for you or your heirs.
• Both: you give each year and still have room in a low bracket after the QCD. The QCD covers the RMD and the conversion fills the bracket. Our guide How much to convert each year shows how to size it.
• Neither, for the charity's share: if your will leaves IRA money to charity, keep that slice in the traditional IRA. See Roth conversions for heirs.

Often, yes. QCDs only work from a traditional IRA. If you convert everything, you lose the most tax-efficient way to give in your 70s and 80s.

A rough guide: multiply your yearly giving by the years you expect to give. Say you give $15,000 a year for 15 years, from 75 through 89. That is $225,000 of IRA money that could go out tax-free as QCDs. If you converted that slice, you would pay tax on money headed to charity anyway.

These details catch people out most often.

• Age 70½, not 73. You can start QCDs at 70½ even though RMDs start later.
• Deductible IRA contributions made at 70½ or older reduce how much of your QCD is tax-free.
• Your Form 1099-R usually shows a QCD as a normal distribution. You mark it as a QCD on your Form 1040 (box 2 on line 4c) and keep the charity's receipt.
• Custodians need time to send the check. Ask for their year-end cutoff so the gift counts for 2026.
• A QCD from a Roth IRA does nothing useful, because qualified Roth money is already tax-free.