A worked example

The giving you were doing anyway

Ruth and Sam, 76 and 74, married. $1.9M still in traditional IRAs, $62,000 of Social Security between them, and they give to their church and two charities every year out of current income.

“We give anyway. Does it matter whether the money comes out of the IRA first or goes to the charity directly?”

What the projection shows

That it changes the return rather than the gift. Taking the required distribution and donating the cash puts the income on the return whatever happens next — and against the standard deduction, which is what they take, the donation buys no deduction at all. Sending it straight from the IRA is an exclusion instead: it satisfies the same requirement and the income never exists, so far less of their Social Security is taxable and lifetime tax falls by $219,474. The same money to the same charities. Note what it does not do: they end poorer either way, because they gave the money away — the projection shows both halves, and whether to give is not a tax question.