Gift through your QCD

If you’re 70-1/2 or older, you can donate up to $111,000 per tax year directly from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) to charities like LifeWise StL. Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) are a great way to make an impact by allowing your dollars to go further. QCDs may be excluded from your taxable income and qualify towards your required minimum distribution (RMD).

What are the IRA charitable rollover rules?

Here’s how a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) works:

• You must be 70-1/2 or older at the time of gifting your IRA to charity. 
• You may distribute an amount, up to $111,000 in a calendar year, to one or more public charities, so long as it is completed by December 31 of that year. 
• Your IRA administrator must make the distribution directly to the charity, or you may write a check to the charity from your IRA checkbook. Funds that are withdrawn by you and then contributed do not qualify.

QCDs count toward your required minimum distribution for the year. If you have to take your required minimum distribution but you don’t want or need the funds, QCDs are a good way to distribute the amount out of the IRA. As an added benefit, you’ll avoid paying income tax on your gross income up to $111,000.

• Contact your IRA administrator and instruct that person to transfer funds to the charity you designate.
• Help us credit your gift and thank you by having your IRA administrator include your full name and mailing address on the gift. Also, have your administrator note that the transfer is an IRA Qualified Charitable Distribution. 
• Mail the check to:
  LifeWise StL
  1321 South 11th St.
  St. Louis, MO  63104

If your financial institution cannot include your full name and address with the check, please contact Greta Buck at 314.260.6369 or gbuck@lifewisestl.org so that we can identify your donation when it arrives.