Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: Excess contributions carry forward five succeeding tax years under IRC §170(d)(1) — 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.
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.
An unresolved interaction worth raising with an adviser. Whether amounts disallowed solely by the new 0.5% floor can be carried forward at all is not something I could establish from primary source. For a large gift the answer changes the plan, and it is not safe to assume either way.
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.