Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: Both a CRAT and a CRUT must pay out between 5% and 50% and both must leave a charitable remainder worth at least 10% at inception. The difference that matters operationally: a CRUT re-applies the 10% test to every additional contribution under IRC §664(d)(2)(D), while a CRAT applies it once. A CRUT can therefore fail on a later gift that a CRAT would never have tested.
Where they diverge
| CRAT | CRUT | |
|---|---|---|
| Payout | Fixed dollar amount, set at inception | Fixed percentage of value, revalued annually |
| Payout range | 5%–50% | 5%–50% |
| Additional contributions | Not permitted | Permitted |
| 10% remainder test | Once, at inception | Re-applied on every additional contribution |
Why the retest is a live risk rather than a technicality. The 10% test is a present-value calculation that depends on the §7520 rate, the payout percentage and the beneficiary’s age. All three move. A CRUT that comfortably passed at inception can fail on a contribution made years later — in a different rate environment, with an older beneficiary — and the donor will not know unless someone runs it. **Every additional contribution to a CRUT needs the test re-run before it is made, not after.**
What the 10% test actually asks
Whether the present value of what the charity will eventually receive is at least a tenth of what goes in, valued at inception using the §7520 rate. A high payout, a young beneficiary, or a low §7520 rate all push the remainder down — and a trust that fails the test is not a charitable remainder trust at all.
Several CRT questions are deliberately not answered here because they could not be confirmed from primary source — the CRAT probability-of-exhaustion test, the four-tier income ordering, and whether the trust’s sale of contributed property is exempt at trust level. Those are widely asserted and I am not repeating them unverified.
No dollar figures appear here, and that is deliberate. The QCD annual cap is inflation-indexed and the figure printed in IRC §408(d)(8)(A) is the original un-indexed amount, which the statute will keep reciting forever. AGI ceilings are percentages, not amounts. Take current dollar limits from the IRS for the year in question, never from an article.
Sources
IRC §170(b)(1)(A), (b)(1)(C), (b)(1)(D), (b)(1)(G), (b)(1)(I) and (d)(1); §170(e)(1) and (e)(5); §170(f)(11) (appraisal); §68 as amended; §408(d)(8) (qualified charitable distributions); §4966(d)(2) (donor-advised funds); §664(d)(1) and (d)(2) (charitable remainder trusts). Amendments from P.L. 119-21. IRS Publication 505 (2026) for the 0.5% floor’s first application year. All read July 2026.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice, and retirement-plan design turns on facts about your business and your other entities that no page can see. Every dollar limit referenced here is indexed and changes annually.