Hi, I am a CPA, Tax Attorney, and I very much appreciate being able to bring a question to this forum.

I have a case where my client, a young woman, inherited an IRA from her mother who passed away in 2008 at the age of 50.

I am taking this case at its conclusion – not in its infancy.

The question is, as I understand the law, is that a non spouse beneficiary of an IRA , i.e., a daughter is the named beneficiary, where the owner passed away before attaining age 70 and 1/2, the non spouse beneficiary can elect to take out the entire IRA over five years, or can elect the “stretch” option, to take distributions out over the beneficiary’s lifetime. This election must be made by the IRA named beneficiary by September 30, of the year following the IRA owner’s year of death.

The daughter in this case would have had to make the election to take IRA distributions over her lifetime by Sept. 30, 2009.

When did this election requirement become enacted? i.e., if it was not in effect in 2009, when the election would have been required, then there was no election requirement in 2009.

If the election was required in 2009, then is my recourse to plead “reasonable cause” to waive the 50% excise tax, because the daughter received faulty advice from her advisor in 2009, someone other than myself.

Thank you so much.