Qualified Charitable Donations
 

Just a reminder about QCD's for tax purposes. If you are taking a RMD and you make charitable donations QCD's are for you. What is it? The ability to make contributions directly from your retirement plan and have those contributions count against your RMD. The balance is subject to tax but not the amount directed towards charities.

If you don't itemize and in cases wherein the contributions push your itemized deductions over the amount of the standard deduction this works to reduce AGI. This results in lower taxes as well as affecting other items. such as IRMMA and NIT.

Some investment advisors don't know about this. Some of the ones who do know about it discourage it because it is extra non-compensated work to them to assist you with QCD's. Push through and make sure they complete the donation before 12/31/2024.

QCDs are tricky to do correctly so make sure you and/or your advisor/custodian know what to do. This article from Kiplinger shows how to report it on your tax return: How to Report QCDs in Your Tax Filings: The Tax Letter | Kiplinger

There are thousands of qualified charities. Many of them are less efficient than the Government, so choose a good one. Otherwise, you may as well just pay the taxes.