RMD – Recent Widow
Thanks everyone – here are the facts:
Client Husband DOB 3/12/49, passed away 12/15/2020. He would have turned 72 5 days ago. Widow DOB 6/25/49. Do RMD’s have to be distributed from husband’s IRA’s before rolling to spouses IRA’s? I assume this is the correct way to handle. She will still need to take her RMD’s from IRA’s this year unless she takes two in 2022. I assume she can still file a joint tax return in 2021 even though husband passed in prior year. Just making sure I’m on the right track this is an interesting scenario.
Thanks everyone!
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Wed, 2021-03-17 16:22
RMDs were waived for 2020, so there is no year of death RMD required. Husband’s first RMD year was 2019, but if he did not distribute anything in 2019, that 2019 RMD would also have been waived by the CARES Act. The widow should elect to assume ownership of the inherited IRA, and she will then be treated as having owned it the entire year of 2021. She will therefore have an owner’s 2021 RMD based on the Uniform Table for age 72, and this RMD will be far less than if she left it as inherited and had to use Table I. She must take an RMD for 2021 in 2021, it cannot be deferred to 2022.
She should elect to assume ownership rather than taking a distribution and rolling it over due to the one rollover limitation per 12 months, as that includes any IRAs should already owns.
The last year to file a joint return would have been 2020, the year of death. However, if there is a dependent child living with her, she could extend the joint filer rates (qualifying widow) for two additional years.