Did TCDTR extend coronavirus-related distributions for six more months?
In reading Sec. 302(a) of TCDTR, it doesn’t appear to me that it extends the ability to take coronavirus-related distributions (CRDs) into 2021. There is no mention of COVID-19, just qualified disaster areas.
I know that CARES essentially made the entire country a “qualified disaster area,” but I see nothing about extending CARES in TCDTR. That said, I see places like CCH reporting that TCDTR *does* extend the ability to take CRDs, at least for 180 days after enactment.
Does anyone else read the latest Act as an extension of CRDs? I’m just not seeing it.
Please and thank you.
Permalink Submitted by David Mertz on Thu, 2020-12-31 22:18
For the purpose of TITLE III, which includes SEC. 302, SEC. 301(1)(B) excludes from the definition of a qualified disaster area to which TITLE III applies any area that has been declared a disaster area only because of COVID-19. Those who say that the deadline for taking CRDs has been extended have apparently overlooked that and have erroneously concluded that the deadline for taking CRDs has been extended. Nothing else in the TCDTR Act comes anywhere close to being applicable to CRDs.
[Edit] There is one area where there might be a bit of ambiguity: Has the deadline for CRDs been extended in areas that have suffered some other disaster that make the area a qualified disaster area? I don’t think so because SEC 302 mentions nothing in the definition of a affected individual that relates in any way to the original definition of an affected individual with regard to a CRD. It instead defines an affected individual as someone who has suffered an “economic loss” which to me means that the individual had something of value (property) prior to the disaster that was reduced in value by the disaster.