IRA Charitable Rollover Guidelines

1. You must be at least 70½ old before an IRA Charitable Rollover distribution to GFA World or another qualified charity.
2. IRA rollovers to charity are limited to $100,000 per individual taxpayer per year. A husband and wife could each give up to $100,000 per year from two separate IRA accounts.
3. The IRA charitable rollover applies to distributions made to GFA World or other qualified charities from January 1, 2015 and beyond – there is no expiration date!
4. For the distribution to not be counted as income, it must be made directly from your IRA account to a qualified charity. If you receive the distribution check and then sign it over to a charity, the IRA distribution would be recognized as income for income tax purposes and typically would be eligible for a federal income tax charitable deduction.
5. Direct distributions to GFA World from your IRA could count as your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) for the year. This would reduce or eliminate the RMD that would otherwise be taxable income. If this puts you in a lower tax bracket, it could mean significant savings to you.
6. The amount of your IRA Charitable Rollover is not limited to your RMD. It could be more or less – up to $100,000 per person per year.
7. You may contribute more than $100,000 to a qualified charity from your IRA; however, the law limits the exclusion from gross income to $100,000. Charitable contributions from an IRA in excess of the $100,000 must follow the general rules pertaining to percentage limitations and itemized contribution reductions.
8. Donors of IRA Charitable Rollover gifts do not receive a federal income tax charitable deduction for the IRA gift, as they are not being taxed on the withdrawal.
9. Distributions from your IRA account to a private foundation, donor advised fund, a supporting organization, or to fund split-interest gifts such as charitable gift annuities or charitable remainder trusts are not eligible as IRA Charitable Rollovers.
10. You may not receive any benefit or value from the recipient charity as a result of your IRA Charitable Rollover. Doing so would disqualify the gift from the special IRA rollover tax advantages.
11. This charitable rollover opportunity applies exclusively to traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs. Other retirement plans such as 401(k)s, Keoghs and SEP-IRAs are not eligible. However, under federal tax rules, these other plans generally may be rolled over to an IRA. Although the RMD will need to be taken before such a plan rollover is done, a charitable distribution from the new IRA account can still be made that year. In the following year, a charitable distribution from the IRA account will qualify as part or all of the RMD.

The information contained on this web page is not intended, nor should it be used as legal, accounting or other professional advice. It is always a good idea to seek legal and tax advice from your professional advisor(s).