For your consideration…this may be a better way for you to contribute to the Urological Research Foundation

If you are at least 70 ½ years old, own a tax-deferred retirement account, and plan to make a charitable donation, the under-appreciated option of making a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) may be especially beneficial for you.

For example, if you have an IRA, you must pay taxes on regular distributions you take from it.  Thus, for a traditional IRA, SEP IRA, Simple IRA, or SARSEP IRA, you will owe taxes at your current tax rate on the amount you withdraw. For example, if you are in the 22% tax bracket, the amount of your IRA withdrawal will be taxed at 22%.  Thus, if you want to take $100 from your IRA to make a charitable contribution, and you receive the money yourself and write a check for $100 to the charity, you would owe the IRA $22 in income taxes; hence, it would cost you $122 to make the $100 donation.

In contrast, a qualified charitable distribution that goes directly from the IRA to the charity (without your ever touching the money) would not be taxable income to you.  And if you are turning 72 years old or older and must fulfill a required minimum distribution each year, a qualified charitable distribution that went directly from the IRA to the charity would count toward fulfilling that required minimum distribution.   And that amount of the donation would also be deducted from your IRA’s taxable income.  Thus, the donation would reduce your taxable income by $100.  This can be a significant advantage for some higher-income earners as they consider their annual charitable gifting.

• In summary, taxpayers over 70 ½ years of age are allowed an exclusion from gross income for distributions from their income from their IRA made directly to a charitable organization of up to $100,000 ($100,000 for each spouse on a joint return). A qualified charitable distribution counts toward satisfying a taxpayer’s required minimum distributions from a traditional IRA.

The Urological Research Foundation is a registered 501c3 qualified charity.  Donations can be mailed to:

Urological Research Foundation
c/o Financial Support Services
P.O. Box 50348
St Louis, MO  63105-5348