QCDs in 2012

Submitted by Patrick McGinty on Tue, 2014-05-27 13:04

I have a client who gave to a charity in May of 2012 from his IRA and hoped that legislation would pass by the end of the year making his contribution a QCD. Given the contribution wasn’t made in December, did the law technically cover this situation?

Likewise I have a different client who has strong charitable intent and wants to gift from her IRA in 2014 hoping that a law will pass retroactively to make it a QCD. Assuming the same legislative scenario in 2012 happens in 2014, her concern was that the actual charitable distribution had to be made in the month of December.

Thoughts on this?



Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2014-05-27 16:18

  1. Re first client, the 2012 QCD legislation back dated QCDs to Jan 1st. Client could therefore report the QCD on line 15 of Form 1040 in the same manner that a rollover would be reported. The QCD must be done prior to any other distributions that year for the QCD to apply to the RMD.
  2. As in the first case, if the QCD is extended, it will likely follow the 2012 retroactive provisions. So if the IRA custodian will make the check out AS IF the QCD had been extended, it should count as a QCD after the extension is passed. Worst case scenario if QCD is not extended, the distribution will be taxable, apply toward the RMD and the contribution can be itemized. If client was going to give to charity either way, they could proceed now in this manner.

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