With the arrival of December, the holiday season is in full swing and for those of you over 70 1/2 years old, that means it’s about time to take your Required Minimum Distribution from your IRA if you haven’t already.
This year, you have the opportunity (again) to skip your Required Minimum Distribution by making a Charitable IRA Rollover. As with the past three years, the Charitable IRA Rollover allows you to make a distribution from your IRA directly to a charity of your choice, which counts towards your Required Minimum Distribution. This rollover does not increase your taxable income, but does not qualify for a charitable income tax deduction for the year. It is important to note that rollovers of this sort are required to go directly between your IRA administrator and the charity of your choice. If you take the distribution yourself and then gift it to a charity, the IRS counts that as a normal distribution and the amount will be added to your taxable income for the year. (In this circumstance, the gift to charity would qualify for a tax deduction which would partially – but not completely – offset the taxable income.)
If you are interested in making a charitable gift via your IRA and would like more information on how to accomplish it, please email me at chris.sargent (at) acu.edu or call The ACU Foundation office at 800-979-1906.