How to Take a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) with Vanguard [with Screenshots] | White coat investor

Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) are the most tax-efficient way for seniors to donate to charity. You can still itemize your taxes, but every portion of your donation will be made with pre-tax dollars. Additionally, it may take the place of some or all of the required minimum distributions (RMDs) for that year. The only downsides to QCDs are that they are limited in size to $108,000 [2025 — visit our annual numbers page to get the most up-to-date figures] but are indexed to inflation and cannot go directly into a Donor Advised Fund (DAF).

Just as we created step-by-step guides to taking your RMDs at Vanguard, this will be a post with a step-by-step guide to taking a QCD at Vanguard. Please note that each time Vanguard changes its website, this guide will become out of date and may remain out of date until we get new screenshots. But the basic process should remain the same.

Qualified Charitable Distributions at Vanguard

The first step is to log into your personal Vanguard account. Then go to the top set of menus, click on ‘Portfolio’ (red arrow) and then down to ‘Pension overview’ (black arrow).

Make sure the customer name and tax year are correct, then click ‘Required Summary Page for Minimum Distribution’ (black arrow).

Now click on the “Request a QCD” button at the very bottom left.

Then select the fund you want to take the QCD from (in this case I selected a fund that I knew had more than the allotted percentage and that I would have to sell some shares to rebalance), enter the amount you want to give from a QCD and then click the “CONTINUE” button (all black arrows). Please note that here you can take a QCD from more than one fund in one step.

Once you click “CONTINUE”, the page will change so that you can also interact with the right side. Using the menu on the right, scroll down to ‘Send me a check for charity’ and select it (black arrow). Then press the “CONTINUE” button (red arrow).

When the information screen appears, press the “OK” button (black arrow).

Note a few things here.

Firstly, Vanguard’s crazy IT interface often causes you to restart the left side at this point, so you may have to re-select the fund and/or re-enter the QCD amount. Don’t be surprised; it happens a lot. Second, Vanguard uses your standard mailing address to send the check. I don’t think you can change this without changing your default mailing address. It’s a safety matter.

Type in the name of your chosen charity and make sure it is a legitimate charity as far as the IRS is concerned (Vanguard won’t check this for you; it just puts what you write in that box on the check and sends it to you). Then press “CONTINUE” (black arrow).

Then go to the tax withholding page, which is the same as what you see at this point in the RMD process. I don’t think most will withhold some of their QCD for taxes, but it is an option if you want. If I were you, I’d set this to 0% (black arrow) and then select how you want to send the notification (if any (green arrow)) before pressing ‘CONTINUE’ (red arrow).

Next is the review page, which should look quite familiar to you. Check everything again and then press the “SEND” button (black arrow).

The next page is just the confirmation page.

That’s it. The check will appear in the mail in about a week and you can deliver it personally or send it to your chosen charity. You can do more than one; just follow the same process.

More information here:

Why Rich Charitable People Shouldn’t Do Roth Conversions

4 Things You Can Do With Required Minimum Distributions (And 1 You Can’t Do)

Bonus! How to Take an RMD with Vanguard

This section is especially relevant if you want your required minimum distribution to go to your investment account with Vanguard, NOT your bank account. Most of this has been covered on the blog in the past and is updated regularly, but I noticed a small adjustment in 2025 when I tried to move the RMD to the brokerage account. That’s why I took some extra screenshots this year.

If you look closely at the screenshots above, you’ll notice that the QCD was $14,344, but the RMD total was $56,992.85. After the QCD, an RMD of $56,992.85-$14,344 = $42,648.85 was still required. Let’s take it!

Start by going back to the main page after you log in. Go to “Portfolio” (black arrow) and get the drop-down menu. Keep in mind that if you are of RMD age, the “Required Minimum Distribution” section may be front and center there. Thanks, Vanguard! Very helpful.

Select ‘Pension overview’ again (black arrow).

Next, make sure the name and year of the RMD you want to take is correct, then click the “Required Minimum Distribution Summary Page” link (black arrow).

Click the ‘Take a distribution’ button (black arrow).

Select the fund or funds from which you want to receive the benefit. In this case, I opted to take it out of cash and rebalance the portfolio a day or two later. I could have rebalanced the whole thing by withdrawing different amounts of each of the funds into the account, but that seemed too complicated. Press the radio button next to your chosen fund (black arrow) and then the “CONTINUE” button (red arrow).

On the next page, choose a specific dollar amount (black arrow), place it in the box (red arrow), then click the “Continue Order” button (green arrow).

Here’s where things got interesting in 2025. If you want to transfer your RMD to a bank account, no problem, this would work just fine. You simply check the radio button next to “Yes, take an IRA distribution and send the money to a bank account” (black arrow), choose your linked bank account (red arrow), make sure you agree with the tax withholding choice, and click the “Sample Order” button (green arrow).

But I didn’t want to transfer the money to a bank account. I wanted to move it to the investment account, but that wasn’t allowed. It’s also worth noting that despite the fact that I had already placed a QCD order earlier the same day, the website still told me that this account had not yet been charged an RMD. That won’t be updated until the next day. The bottom line is that I realized this wasn’t going to work.

I went back to the main page, also called the dashboard. Then I scrolled down the left to the traditional IRA account I wanted to take an RMD from, opened the “Transact” menu and clicked “Exchange (sell to buy) mutual funds” (black arrow).

Actually, that’s probably what I do should have done. What me Actually what I did was click on ‘Sell Mutual Funds’ which took me here:

Realizing that this wasn’t quite where I wanted to be, I saw the link I wanted: the “Use the full sales page” link. I don’t know why Vanguard does this kind of thing. Maybe it’s to try to make things simpler for people, but in reality I think it makes it more complicated. I needed more options, so I thought the ‘full sale’ page would work, and I was right. That link takes you here:

Choose ‘Sell in Dollars’ (black arrow), select the fund you want to sell, enter the RMD amount (red arrow) and click the ‘CONTINUE’ button (green arrow).

There is the option we want: ‘Exchange to another fund.’ Press that and “CONTINUE”, and you will end up here:

Now I can choose a fund in the brokerage account, enter the RMD amount and click “CONTINUE” (black arrows).

If necessary, accept delivery of the electronic version of the fund prospectus by clicking “ACCEPT” (black arrow).

Now it’s time to talk about tax withholdings. While I don’t think anyone wants to have money withheld from a QCD for taxes that are not due, many people have money withheld from their RMDs. If you take out your RMD late in the year, as many do, this is an excellent way to avoid lending the IRS a lot of extra money at 0%. Instead of making estimated quarterly payments, you can pay much or even all of your annual tax bill by using RMD withholding in December.

The IRS doesn’t care when money is withheld, but it does care when estimated quarterly payments are made. If money is withheld in January or December, it all matters the same to the IRS whether it is withheld from paychecks, retirement checks, Social Security checks, or RMDs. In this case it was decided to withhold 20% tax. You will then need to click a radio button to determine if and how you want to be notified that this has happened, and click the “CONTINUE” button (black arrow).

You are now on the review page. If it all looks good, click “SUBMIT” and the confirmation page will look similar. Note that Vanguard’s message still says that none of the RMD has been taken yet. But if you go back the next business day, you’ll see this:

Now you can pat yourself on the back! Of course, by the time we publish this and you’re ready to do an RMD (probably in 2026 or later), Vanguard will have changed its website again. But the process should be the same every year, even if the pages look a little different.

Does this process make sense for you? Do you have any other RMD or QCD questions?