Under the current IRS tax law, there is much talk about the standard charitable deduction. But you should know that a gift from your IRA will directly reduce your adjusted gross income!

Making a qualified charitable distribution from your IRA has two main benefits:

1. First, a qualified charitable distribution from your IRA counts toward satisfying your required minimum distribution (RMD) for that year.
2. Second, by making a charitable gift of your RMD, it is excluded from taxable income.   

Because of the new, higher standard deduction, very few individuals are expecting to itemize. This second benefit can be better than itemizing deductions. When you make a direct IRA gift, you get a full exclusion of the income and reduce the taxable amount. 

If you are 70 1/2 years or older, subject to RMDs and want to enlarge the work of IM in God’s mission, a gift direct from your IRA works for you and will be put to work for the kingdom.

Here is how to get started and learn more:

1. Contact your donor advisor or zdripps@internationalministries.org for a sample request letter to send to your IRA administrator.
2. For accuracy, provide them with IM’s Federal ID#13-5563392. 

For more useful information on charitable and planned giving visit our development pages here.