is now 
IRA owners age 70½ or older have just a few more days to make tax-free transfers to eligible charities and have them count for tax-year 2012.
The IRS
reports eligible IRA owners have until Thursday, January 31st, to make a direct transfer, or
alternatively, if they received IRA distributions during December 2012, to
contribute, in cash, part or all of the amounts received to an eligible
charity.
The recently approved American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 has extended for 2012 and 2013 the provision authorizing qualified charitable distributions (QCDs). Each year, the IRA owner can exclude from gross income up to $100,000 of these QCDs. First available in 2006, this provision had expired at the end of 2011, but now has been given two more tax years.
