How much can I give to charity from my IRA tax-free in 2026?

Q: How much can I give to charity from my IRA tax-free in 2026?

Up to $111,000 per person in 2026 — $222,000 for a married couple who each own an IRA — sent directly from the IRA to a qualifying charity as a qualified charitable distribution, excluded from income entirely. The transfer counts toward that year's required minimum distribution, and the cap covers a typical one several times over: a $1,000,000 IRA at 73 has an RMD of $37,736. Because the money never enters adjusted gross income, it also keeps the distribution out of the income that sets Medicare premiums two years later — worth $1,148 a year in the example below. You must be 70½ or older on the date of the transfer.

Up to $111,000 per person in 2026 — $222,000 for a married couple who each own an IRA — sent directly from the IRA to a qualifying charity as a qualified charitable distribution, excluded from income entirely. The transfer counts toward that year's required minimum distribution, and the cap covers a typical one several times over: a $1,000,000 IRA at 73 has an RMD of $37,736. Because the money never enters adjusted gross income, it also keeps the distribution out of the income that sets Medicare premiums two years later — worth $1,148 a year in the example below. You must be 70½ or older on the date of the transfer.

$111,000

Annual QCD limit per person

$222,000

Married couple, separate IRAs

$55,000

One-time split-interest election

A QCD against the required distribution it satisfies (2026)

Age	Divisor	RMD on $500,000	RMD on $1,000,000	RMD on $2,000,000	Covered by the $111,000 cap?
73	26.5	$18,868	$37,736	$75,472	Yes — every balance shown
75	24.6	$20,325	$40,650	$81,301	Yes — every balance shown
80	20.2	$24,752	$49,505	$99,010	Yes — every balance shown
85	16	$31,250	$62,500	$125,000	Not at the largest balance

The distribution and the gift are the same money: a qualified charitable distribution counts toward the required minimum for the year it is made, up to the annual limit. It must go directly from the IRA custodian to the charity — a withdrawal you deposit and then donate is an ordinary taxable distribution, whatever you do with it afterward. Donor-advised funds and private foundations do not qualify; a one-time election of up to $55,000 to a charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder trust does, and counts inside the annual limit rather than on top of it.

What it saves beyond the deduction

Filing status	Other income	MAGI if the RMD is taken as cash	MAGI if it goes as a QCD	Medicare surcharge, cash	Medicare surcharge, QCD
Single	$75,000	$112,736	$75,000	$1,148	$0
Single	$95,000	$132,736	$95,000	$1,148	$0
Married filing jointly	$190,000	$227,736	$190,000	$1,148	$0

An itemized charitable deduction reduces taxable income but leaves adjusted gross income where it was. A QCD removes the income before AGI is struck, so it lowers every figure that keys off AGI or modified AGI — the taxable share of Social Security, the 2026 Medicare income thresholds two years out, and the marketplace subsidy calculation for anyone not yet on Medicare. That is why it works for people who take the standard deduction and would never see a charitable deduction at all. The QCD calculator sizes the transfer against your own required distribution, and the RMD percentage by age chart shows how much of the balance the requirement takes at every age.

Methodology

The limits are the 2026 qualified-charitable-distribution caps (QCD_LIMITS_2026) in QuantCalc's tax-constants mirror — indexed for inflation by SECURE 2.0 §307, so the annual figure moves every year and a source still quoting an earlier year's cap is out of date. Required distributions are the balance divided by the 2026 IRS Uniform Lifetime Table III factor (RMD_TABLE), and the Medicare figures come from annualSurcharge() in the parity-tested IRMAA module. See the 2026 RMD table dataset and the 2026 IRMAA bracket dataset.

Every figure on this page is computed at build time from QuantCalc's parity-tested calculation modules or a committed dataset — never hand-entered. Reference for research and planning only; not tax, legal, or investment advice.

Model this for your own numbers

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Changelog

v2026.1 — first publication. Figures computed from the 2026 tax-constants mirror and committed datasets.

Cite this dataset

QuantCalc Research (2026). How much can I give to charity from my IRA tax-free in 2026?. https://quantcalc.app/answers/how-much-can-i-give-to-charity-from-my-ira/ (accessed <date>).

BibTeX

@misc{quantcalc2026howmuchcanigivetocharityfrommyirataxfree,
  title  = {How much can I give to charity from my IRA tax-free in 2026?},
  author = {{QuantCalc Research}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://quantcalc.app/answers/how-much-can-i-give-to-charity-from-my-ira/},
  note   = {Accessed <date>}
}

Machine-readable citation metadata (schema.org identifier and citation fields) is embedded in this page's JSON-LD, at the stable identifier https://quantcalc.app/answers/how-much-can-i-give-to-charity-from-my-ira/.