GIVING

Did you know that you can gift your Required Minimum Distribution (“RMD”) up to $100,000 directly from an Individual Retirement Account (“IRA”) and the gift is a tax-exempt distribution? You generally need to start taking withdrawals from your IRA or other retirement vehicles when you reach age 72 (70 ½ if you reach 70 ½ before January 1, 2020). An IRA rollover gift is a tax-exempt distribution. Qualifying individuals can make charitable gifts using pre-tax IRA assets rather than taking a distribution, paying federal income taxes and using after-tax assets to make charitable gifts. This option is called a Qualified Charitable Distribution (“QCD”) and can be used to support multiple charities, as long as the sum of the distributions is within the $100,000 limit. Also, an IRA rollover gift or QCD can be used to meet all or part of an IRA’s annual RMD. In addition, because QCDs reduce the balance of the IRA, they may reduce RMDs in future years. QCDs are also not counted toward the maximum amounts deductible for those who itemize their giving on their tax return – the $100,000 can be above and beyond those limits.