Individual turns 70.5 in December 2017 but passes away early in the year (march). The spouse rolls his IRA to her IRA. She also turns 70.5 in 2017. I understand she is required to take out her RMD by her RBD; however, does she get a pass on having to take out the deceased’s RMD in 2017 (year of death)?
It is also noteworthy that if the IRA owner passed in March 2018, since death would still be prior to the RBD, the same provisions would apply for the 2018 RMD. Therefore, two years of RMDs on the IRA balance that would have been required had owner lived beyond the RBD become “unrequired” due to owner’s death. However, if the owner took distributions before passing then those distributions are credited against the RMD for 2017 up to that RMD amount and also to the 2018 RMD for distributions taken out in 2018 before passing. These distributions cannot be rolled back due to owner’s death because they are only “unrequired” if they were not distributed and the owner passed prior to the RBD.
Permalink Submitted by David Mertz on Tue, 2017-09-05 21:57
Since the deceased passed before the deceased’s RBD (April 1, 2018), no RMD is required of the deceased for 2017, so there is no 2017 RMD for surviving spouse to satisfy with repect the IRA that belonged to the deceased.