Required Minimum Distributions from your IRA | Army War College Foundation, INC.

Army War College Foundation, INC.

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Required Minimum Distributions from your IRA

Required Minimum Distributions from your IRA

Individual Retirement Account (IRA) Required Minimum Distributions can be sent directly to the Army War College Foundation to avoid increasing your taxable income.

Under current law, when contributors to traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) reach 70.5 years of age, the Internal Revenue Service begins requiring minimum distributions from those accounts each calendar year.  (This rule does not apply to Roth IRAs.)  These required distributions are treated as earned income for that tax year, increasing the taxpayer’s Adjusted Gross Income.

A direct transfer of your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from your custodian to a qualified charity avoids increasing your taxable income for the year.  As a 501(c)3 organization, our Foundation is a qualified recipient of your RMD.  If, instead, you cash your RMD check and then send the funds to us, cashing the check will increase your Adjusted Gross Income, possibly changing your tax bracket for the year.  A direct transfer to us avoids that increase.

Initiating a Direct Transfer

To initiate a transfer from your IRA, contact your account custodian and direct them to send a check payable to Army War College Foundation, Inc., 122 Forbes Avenue, Carlisle, PA, 17013.

If you plan to write a check from your IRA, you may mail the check to us.  (Note: please read the caution about year-end distributions below.)

In either case, please complete the form below under “Notify us about your pending RMD gift” so we can correctly process your gift as coming from your RMD and can expedite cashing the check.

Caution About Year-End Distributions

IRS rules stipulate Required Minimum Distributions must be completed during the tax year in order to qualify.   If you write a check from your IRA checkbook, that check must process all the way through the system back to your IRA custodian by December 31 for your gift to count as an RMD for the year.  A Postal Service postmark will not count as complying with this rule, and the IRS penalty for failing to comply with RMD rules is significant.  If you have questions about timing, please contact your IRA custodian to ensure you allow enough time for your check to clear.


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