Making a Difference With Your IRA
Over the years, Mike and Joyce Day have supported local causes that make a difference. So when their financial advisor showed them how a required minimum distribution from their individual retirement account (IRA) could be used as a qualified charitable deduction (QCD), they were immediately intrigued.
"There's just a lot of reasons that we decided to do the QCDs and make Carle one of the areas we contribute to," said Mike Day, MD, a family practice doctor who retired from Carle in 2010.
"It's just so simple," Joyce said. "We used to do most of our giving at the end of the year. I would write checks to all of these charitable organizations, and we had to track what we had done during the year. Once we switched over to QCDs, we made a list of charities with addresses, sent it to the bank and they took care of it. By using this simple and painless procedure, we were able to support the charitable causes that were important to us in a timely and tax-effective way."
All charitable contributions are donated in the name of the Days' IRA, and they receive the receipts, giving them all the documentation they need for tax preparation.
"It's relieved the administrative check-writing and record-keeping from us and made our philanthropic support so much easier," Dr. Day said. "Because of the tax savings, it gives us more money to donate to charities. It is really a win, win, win for everybody."