RMD or No RMD for 2024
I am the sole primary beneficiary of my husbands traditional IRA. He passed away in 2023 at the age of 84 after taking his RMD for that year. I just transferred his IRA at Fidelity Investments directly to my own IRA account there. I will be 86 years old and would like to know if I need to take a 2024 RMD for his old account which had a 2023 year-end balance but was entirely transferred out to me in 2024.
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2024-08-06 18:29
You don’t have to take an RMD from the old account, and you can’t because there is no balance in that account.
If you did a direct transfer from the old account to your IRA you can simply treat yourself as the owner for the entire year of 2024 and add the 12/31/2023 balance for that account to that of your own account to calculate your 2024 RMD.
However, if you actually took a distribution from the old account while it was still a beneficiary IRA and did a 60 day rollover to your own IRA, then you will get a 2024 1099R coded 4. That distribution will include a beneficiary RMD for the old account, which will be more than your RMD for that balance as the owner. Further, the amount of that beneficiary RMD was not eligible for rollover and becomes an excess contribution to your own IRA that you will have to correct. So hopefully, you did not take an actual distribution from the inherited IRA.
In short, your 2024 RMDs depend on how the transfer was done to your own IRA. This can be confusing, so if you have further questions, feel free to post them.
Permalink Submitted by Jeff Kosoy on Tue, 2024-08-06 19:06
My husbands IRA account was directly transferred to my IRA account on, (8/2/24). The last RMD made was in December 2022 for the 2023 tax year. His most recent IRA statement, (7/31/24) shows a 2023 year-end balance for a 2024 RMD. The question is: Can I exclude my husbands transferred total amount that I made my own in making a 2024 RMD? Will the IRS hit me with a penalty for not including my husbands inherited IRA when making the 2024 RMD?
Permalink Submitted by John Hill on Wed, 2024-08-07 14:23
Hi Alan, based on what you shared. If the husband passed away in 2023 and the IRA was transferred to the surviving spouse in 2024, she can use the Uniform Lifetime Table to calculate her RMD for that account in 2024 and not subject to the single life table, even though the IRA was not transferred in her name until 2024?
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2024-08-06 19:24
You cannot exclude that balance. As long as you directly transferred the inherited IRA into your own, your 2024 RMD will be based on the Uniform Table for your attained age in 2024 and the combined 12/31/2023 balance of the inherited IRA and your own IRA. You cannot exclude the 12/31/2023 balance of his IRA. This Uniform Table RMD will be lower than if you had taken a distribution directly from the inherited IRA because you would use the Uniform Table which generates lower RMDs rather than the single life table.
I think that when you typed Dec, 2022, you meant Dec, 2023. A distribution taken in 12/2022 cannot satisfy a 2023 RMD.
Permalink Submitted by Jeff Kosoy on Tue, 2024-08-06 20:14
Thank you, I incorrectly referenced Dec 2022 as the RMD date instead of the year-end balance date for the account. If what you’re saying holds, Fidelity Investments needs to update my future IRA statements to include the inherited IRA and my own. They must calculate the new estimated RMD amount for 2024 based on the combined 12/31/2023 balances of both inherited IRA and my own IRA.
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2024-08-06 20:39
Your IRA statements will automatically include the total balance, since it’s all in the one owned IRA from here on.
As for the 2024 RMD, you should check the figure they provide. This is fairly easy – just add the 12/31/2023 balance for both accounts together, then divide that by 15.2 if you will still be 86 at the end of 2024. If you will be 87, the divisor will be 14.4.
Of course, you should also have updated the beneficiary on your own IRA.