If you are at least 70-and-a-half years old, you can make a gift from your IRA now. Using your qualified charitable distribution (QCD) is the only way to take money from your IRA without paying income tax on the withdrawals.

You can instruct your IRA administrator (Fidelity Investments, Vanguard Group, Charles Schwab, for example) to directly transfer (rollover) money from your IRA to Vanderbilt University Medical Center; the administrator will mail a check to the Medical Center.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• You must be at least 70½ years old at the time of the transfer.
   
• You will NOT pay income tax on the amount rolled over to the Medical Center.
   
• The maximum amount per year is $100,000, but you can select any gift amount you like.
   
• The money can't be used to cover event tickets or dinners.
   
• You won't claim a charitable gift tax deduction since you are excluding the rollover amount from gross income.
   
• With an IRA, you must start taking required minimum distributions (RMDs) at age 73 or older. This also applies to 401(k)s and other qualified retirement plans. However, you are still eligible to make a QCD beginning at 70½.
   
  • Check with your tax advisers to see whether the rollover qualifies as your required minimum distribution. The first withdrawals from an IRA during a calendar year are usually treated as your RMD.
     
• When an IRA is inherited by a non-spouse who is more than 10 years younger than the deceased, the new owner can no longer “stretch out” distributions over their life expectancy. In this case, the inherited IRA must be emptied within 10 years. However, there are no RMDs during that time.
   
• Don't forget to tell us you are making a gift to the Medical Center using your IRA so we can appropriately acknowledge your support!
   

Another tax-effective way to make charitable gifts is to donate appreciated stock or mutual funds that you have owned for more than one year. Your charitable deduction is based on the donation's full fair market value. You will save even more on taxes since no capital gains tax is owed on the appreciation (gain) when the stock is transferred. This tax benefit also applies to other types of assets, including real estate. 

Click here to view our Real Estate flyer

There are significant tax benefits to using an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and qualified retirement plans, such as a 401(k) or 403(b), to make final gifts to charities like Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The Medical Center is tax exempt, so when it inherits part or all of an IRA or retirement plan, no income tax is due. (An individual who inherits an IRA must pay income tax on all withdrawals from the account.)

How to name Vanderbilt University Medical Center as a beneficiary:

1. Contact your IRA or retirement plan administrator (for example, TIAA, Fidelity Investments, Vanguard Group, Charles Schwab). Ask for a beneficiary designation form, which can be mailed or completed online on the administrators' website. 
    
2. How do you designate beneficiaries on the form? Here's an example: "Eighty percent to Mary Jones, my daughter; and 20 percent to Vanderbilt University Medical Center," or any combination you choose.
    
3. Your IRA administrator will ask for the Medical Center's address and federal taxpayer identification number (TIN), also known as an employer identification number (EIN):
   
   Vanderbilt University Medical Center
   Office of Development
   PO Box 290369
   525 Royal Parkway
   Nashville, TN 37229-0369
   Tax ID Number 35-2528741

Most people hold their wealth in their assets, not in their checking account. Tax-wise gift arrangements using your assets can help extend your support to the Medical Center now and in the future.

Click here to view our Appreciated Assets flyer