I think I hate IRA’s

[iris lilies]

Oh God yes, I got a beneficiary IRA and it was complex!!! BUT, I will be dead when my IRA leftovers are distributed. In our case, all that is left is going to charities so I do not have to think about it. The laws were recently revised and it is more complicated than when I inherited. I love having a special checkbook to write checks to the charities from the IRA.

Funny thing. My genius brother has to file a gift tax return. He made the mistake of thinking he could just read a publication and understand it. Did not ask me who had 31 years of answering IRS questions. In fact, when I gave him an answer and even another person said the same thing, he did not believe us. No gift tax unless you give away $12 million in your lifetime. Yes to form, no to tax to pay. He still thinks we are wrong.

Throw in major charitable foundation donations and the level of complexity jumps too. Can help with tax management when large income comes in but not for us.

yes! Beneficiary IRA! Ugh.

[jp1]

All this makes me wonder, I still have about $1500 in an IRA I inherited from my father. I've been dutifully taking the required distribution every year for the past nine years, but since it was the IRA of someone well past 70.5 when they died can I donate it to charity and not have to pay tax on the withdrawal? If that's the case I'll make a $1500 donation to one of my regular charities and be done with the stupid thing.

[iris lilies]

All this makes me wonder, I still have about $1500 in an IRA I inherited from my father. I've been dutifully taking the required distribution every year for the past nine years, but since it was the IRA of someone well past 70.5 when they died can I donate it to charity and not have to pay tax on the withdrawal? If that's the case I'll make a $1500 donation to one of my regular charities and be done with the stupid thing.

Good question! I have no idea.

[sweetana3]

I am pretty sure you the owner of IRA whether you donated or inherited have to be 70.5 to make a QCD. It does not appear the age of the individual who died and left the IRA is considered.

Who can make a qualified charitable distribution?
An individual donor can contribute up to $100,000 per year in QCDs, as long as that individual is 70½ years old or older. For married couples, each spouse can make QCDs up to the $100,000 limit for a potential total of $200,000.

The $100,000 per person limit applies to the sum of all QCDs taken from all IRAs in a year. A donor can make one large contribution or several smaller contributions over the course of the calendar year. Remember that QCDs can be made from any or more than one of the IRA types (traditional, inherited, inactive SEP and inactive SIMPLE IRAs) noted above.

[Rogar]

I'm going to ask my accountant about this when he helps with taxes, but I'm not too sure I understand. When money goes from the IRA to a charity, neither party pays taxes, but you don't get anything either. Unless you are jockeying for a lower tax bracket, you could take the money yourself and get at least a fair share of it after taxes. Charities are among my beneficiaries when I go and are welcome to whatever is left after any expensive end of life care, but I'm in no hurry.

[iris lilies]

I'm going to ask my accountant about this when he helps with taxes, but I'm not too sure I understand. When money goes from the IRA to a charity, neither party pays taxes, but you don't get anything either. Unless you are jockeying for a lower tax bracket, you could take the money yourself and get at least a fair share of it after taxes. Charities are among my beneficiaries when I go and are welcome to whatever is left after any expensive end of life care, but I'm in no hurry.

I wish to give to charity. This method maximizes the dollars that go there.

sure, it does nothing for my own pocketbook and that is fine. And as a side reason which is emotional, it gives the federal government NOTHING because I am big mad.

I want to give a steady stream, one that I have complete control over. I do not want to dump one big lump sum into a Directed fund and have gains from that fund doled out to a charity, one reason being that the gains may be small.

I’m really mad at taxes this year because we got hit with an an approximately $30,000 bill and this is on top of our usual income tax bill which last year was $18,000.

[Rogar]

I wish to give to charity. This method maximizes the dollars that go there.

I understand now. I give some money to charities through the year, but it's not organized and gets spread around smaller amounts to several causes. I need a way to consolidate, organize and simplify if it's coming out of my IRA. I'm guessing it could be set up as a direct transfer that would be effortless.

I'd like to think I worked hard and saved for whatever I have and would like to have as much control over where it goes as possible, which doesn't include taxes as long as things are legal. I do plan on sharing.

[nswef]

IL, I started doing that last year, donating directly to the charity. My husband prefers to get the taxable income...It's pretty easy through our broker. This year I divided it among three and you can change them every year. Feel free to whine!!!!