Clear Money Guide
What this guide covers
A quick view of the questions and evidence developed below.
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Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: Excess contributions carry forward five succeeding tax years under IRC §170(d)(1) (qualified conservation contributions carry forward 15 years under §170(b)(1)(E)(ii)), and each AGI bucket carries separately. Cash excess carries in the cash bucket; appreciated property excess carries in its own. They do not pool, which means a donor can be carrying forward in one bucket while still having unused room in another.
IRS worksheets read line by line: Pub 526 Worksheet 2.
Related reading on this site: IRS Publication 526.
Read box by box from the IRS form text: Form 1098-C boxes 4a to 5b and Form 1098-C boxes 6a to 7.
Schedule A and Schedule B (Form 1040) for 2025, read line by line: Schedule A line 11, Schedule A line 12 and Schedule A lines 13 and 14.
More IRS forms and schedules, read line by line: Form 8283 instructions.
More IRS forms and schedules, read line by line: Schedule A instructions.
Why separate buckets matter
Because you can be simultaneously over the limit and under it. A large gift of appreciated stock can exhaust the 30% ceiling and create a carryforward, while the cash ceiling still has room that the stock carryforward cannot use.
| Bucket | Ceiling | Carries forward |
|---|---|---|
| Cash to public charities | 60% of contribution base | 5 years, in this bucket |
| Appreciated property to public charities | 30% | 5 years, in this bucket |
| Appreciated property to non-operating private foundations | 20% or less | 5 years, in this bucket |
Five years is a hard stop. Unused carryforward simply expires. A donor who makes a very large gift relative to income can genuinely run out of runway — which is an argument for spreading a very large gift over the years it can actually be absorbed, and it cuts against the bunching logic that the new floor otherwise encourages.
How the floor interacts with carryforwards. Whether amounts disallowed solely by the new 0.5% floor can be carried forward is addressed in IRC §170(d)(1)(C): a floor-disallowed amount is added to the carryover only from a taxable year in which an excess is already being carried forward under a carryover rule, meaning a year in which a percentage limitation is exceeded.
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.
Figures verified against 26 U.S.C. 170 and IRS Publication 505 (2026) on September 29, 2026.
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.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice, and charitable deduction outcomes turn on facts about your income and your gifts that no page can see. Every dollar limit referenced here is indexed and changes annually.
Related
More Charitable Giving guides: see the full 50-page index.