Dear Liz:<\/b> Please have another go with respect to answering a recent question about making qualified charitable distributions from an IRA using a debit card, which is something we have also wondered about. <\/p>\n
Several of the large mutual fund companies tell their customers that checks from their IRA account going to qualifying charities will qualify as QCDs, whether the checks are written by the company to the charity or by the individual to the charity. Hence, it would seem to be functionally equivalent whether one writes a check or uses a debit card. <\/p>\n
But your answer to the reader\u2019s question seems to suggest something else.<\/p>\n
Answer: <\/b>You\u2019re right that my answer fell short in explaining the problem.<\/p>\n
The original letter writer wanted to be able to use a debit card to make qualified charitable distributions from her IRA to small art organizations that accept online donations, but apparently not paper checks. Qualified charitable distributions allow people to donate money from their IRAs to charity without the money being taxed.<\/p>\n
Since IRA custodians typically don\u2019t issue debit cards, the letter writer would have to first have the donation amount sent to her bank account or another account that offers such a card. But this transfer would make the distribution taxable, since qualified charitable distributions must be made directly to the charity without the money passing through the IRA account holder\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
Checks drawn from an IRA account and made out to the charity, either by the account holder or the IRA custodian, are considered qualified charitable distributions as long as other rules are met. For example, the donation must be from a traditional IRA, the account holder must be at least 70-\u00bd and the annual donation limit is $108,000 in 2025.<\/p>\n
That said, sending checks through the mail is a risky way to transfer funds. Mail theft and related check fraud are soaring. Electronic payments are a far more secure way to send money, whether you\u2019re paying bills or charities.<\/p>\n
If you must send checks, use gel-based pens since their ink is harder to alter and go to your local post office, rather than leaving checks in an unsecured mailbox. Monitor every check you send and report any missing checks promptly to your bank or IRA custodian so they can stop payment.<\/p>\n
Liz Weston, Certified Financial Planner, is a personal finance columnist for NerdWallet.<\/a> <\/a>Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the \u201cContact\u201d form at asklizweston.com.<\/a><\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear Liz: Please have another go with respect to answering a recent question about making qualified charitable distributions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[27121,79,27122,27123,27124,14872,27125,27126,18,1729,27127,27128,27129,789,19,27130,17,27131,27132,27133,825,10269,27134,27135,27136,237,27137,234,235,432,21983,384,9223,27138],"class_list":{"0":"post-34945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-35-39-years","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-cape-verdean-ethnicity","11":"tag-check","12":"tag-checkbook","13":"tag-close-up","14":"tag-color-image","15":"tag-copy-space","16":"tag-eire","17":"tag-finance","18":"tag-hand","19":"tag-high-angle-view","20":"tag-holding","21":"tag-horizontal","22":"tag-ie","23":"tag-indoors","24":"tag-ireland","25":"tag-jersey-city","26":"tag-mid-adult","27":"tag-mid-adult-women","28":"tag-money","29":"tag-new-jersey","30":"tag-one-person","31":"tag-paying-bills","32":"tag-pen","33":"tag-people","34":"tag-personal-check","35":"tag-personal-finance","36":"tag-personalfinance","37":"tag-photography","38":"tag-responsibility","39":"tag-united-states","40":"tag-woman","41":"tag-writing"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}