Two IRA questions

RMDs from inherited IRAs must be taken from that IRA. You cannot combine the amounts and choose which IRA to distribute from.

Charities do not pay taxes on the contributions they receive. What you are thinking of is a Qualified Charitable Distribution. If you make a QCD to a charity, you don't pay taxes on the IRA distribution, and you also forgo the charitable contribution deduction. You can only make a QCD if you are over the age of 70 1/2 on the date you make the QCD. Note that this age did not change with the recent enactment of the SECURE Act.

Ira Smilovitz, EA

Thanks, no I wasn't confusing the QCD. I was thinking about how to allocate my own funds after death, as I have no spouse nor children and more than I care to leave to my two nephews. (Yes, I know lots of people would like to have that problem.) But your answer was very helpful, as I thought the QCD kicked in at age 59 1/2. I'm between 59 1/2 and 70 1/2.

I thought you were right about the RMD, and that it was odd that Fidelity would give me a single amount. Since both of my brothers are in an identical situation, I'll share the information with them.

You can make a QCD from an Inherited IRA but to make a QCD you need to be at least 70.5 years old and meet all the other QCD requirements.

The method for calculating RMDs for Inherited IRAs is in Publication

Several estate lawyers I have talked to recommend leaving taxable IRAs to charities when you wish to make charitable contributions at your death. The charity doesn't pay taxes and you can leave your other heirs cash or assets that have a stepped up cost basis.

And just to clarify, the way you "don't pay taxes" on your QCD is: it's not reported as part of your income. This has implications beyond just Federal tax: it may reduce the percentage of social Security benefits that are taxable; it may reduce or eliminate a surcharge on your Medicare Parts B and D premiums; and since it's excluded from income you get the tax benefit even if you do not itemize deductions.

Here's a non-technical intro, provided about four weeks ago by a contributor when I asked about QCDs in this group:

Fidelity shows you the total of all your RMDs on your portfolio summary page when you log in. But the Retirement Distribution Center shows you all the details -- the individual RMD for each account, and how each RMD is calculated.

To get to the Retirement Distribution Center, below the total on the portfolio summary page click the link that says "learn more about RMDs and take a distribution." Or click Accounts & Trade at the top left, then Retirement Distributions.

The Retirement Distribution Center also shows the total of all the RMDs at the top, but scroll down a bit and you will see a detailed list of the RMD for each individual account. If you click on an account, it will show you the calculation of the RMD for that account.

Also, on the portfolio summary page, below the total RMD, it says the following: "Note: If you have inherited or Fidelity Retirement Plan accounts, the IRS requires you take distributions separately from those accounts."

Bob Sandler

If you take all your RMD's from one account, keep good records just in case. f you have more than one IRA, you must calculate the RMD for each IRA separately each year. However, you may aggregate your RMD amounts for all of your IRAs and withdraw the total from one IRA or a portion from each of your IRAs. You do not have to take a separate RMD from each IRA.

You can't aggregate distributions from a Inherited Roth and a Inherited non-Roth IRA. Even the article you reference tells you that ("Inherited Roth IRA (cannot be combined with inherited IRAs)"