IRA RMD with Joint Life Expectancy Table

Submitted by Peter Tilkin on Sat, 2016-12-24 19:22

Hi,

I am a CPA and Tax Attorney. I am delighted with the Ed Slott Forum. Thank you very much.

My question for today is when is it appropriate to use the Joint Life Expectancy Table for IRA RMD’s.

Most of my calculations for IRA RMD’s have been for unmarried people.

However, if there is a husband and wife, and they have named each other the designated beneficiary in the IRA documents, and both are over age 70 and 1/2 necessitating RMD’s from their IRA’s, I assume under those facts, the Joint Life Expectancy Tables would be used. Please tell me if I am correct.

Are there any exceptions to the above general rule, such as if the husband is 71 but the wife is 65, and both have IRA’s can the husband use the Joint Life Expectancy Table for his annual IRA RMD’s even though the wife is younger than age 70 and 1/2? They are each the named designated beneficiary of each other’s IRA.

If there is a husband and wife, each younger than age 70 and 1/2 and each with their own IRA ,
having the spouse named as the designated beneficiary, and the wife has an Inherited IRA from her mother and her mother was older than 70 and 1/2 when she passed away, requiring the daughter/wife to take RMD’s from the Inherited IRA, can the daughter/wife use the Joint Life Expectancy Table for her RMD’s from the Inherited IRA? thank you very much.



Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Sat, 2016-12-24 21:47

  • Yes, the joint life table only applies to the IRA account on which the spouse is the sole beneficiary and is more than 10 years younger than the IRA owner. The other spouse would use the Uniform table.
  • If the husband is 71 and wife 65, he cannot use the joint table because the wife is not more than 10 years younger. Note that the uniform table divisor is constructed to automatically assume a beneficiary 10 years younger whether married or not. Therefore, there would be no benefit for using joint life for a beneficiary 10 or LESS years younger. If you check the joint table for a couple 80 and 70 with the Uniform table divisor for an 80 year old, the divisors will be the same.
  • For your final example, the daughter cannot use the joint table. The joint table is only available for an IRA owner with a sole SPOUSE beneficiary more than 10 years younger. That is stated at the top of the joint table in Pub 590 B. It cannot be used with an inherited IRA.

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