Year of Death RMD (spouse beneficiary)
T-IRA,78, dies in 2021. He did not take his RMD (roughly $44k) before passing
Spouse, 75, sole beneficiary
Spouse has her own T-IRA. Her RMD is $5k
Question
Am I correct in stating – surviving spouse must take the (now deceased spouse) RMD of $44k plus his own RMD of $5k?
Also, I would venture to guess – the surviving spouse is would withdraw a total of $49K from his own IRA (which now includes the transferred (rolled over) assets from the deceased spouse’s IRA
Thank you
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2021-10-26 18:12
Yes, the surviving spouse must distribute 49k to satisfy both RMDs. It usually does not matter whether the 44k is distributed from the inherited IRA before assumption of ownership or from the owned IRA after the spousal rollover. One less 1099R to deal with if RMDs come from the IRA after the spousal rollover. If there is a significant amount of IRA basis in one spouse’s account vs the others, then the handling of the year of death RMD could be a factor in determining the taxable amount of the RMDs.