Spouse that remained as beneficiary-when must she take 1st RMD?
Husband passed away 2-13-2011, age at death was 60, his dob was 9-6-1950
Wife inherited his IRAs and remained as beneficiary, her DOB is 5-3-1962, so she was 48 at time of death. She turns 59 1/2 in December, 2021. One beneficiary IRA will easily just roll over to her own IRA.
However, she has another one that is an annuity with a really good Income provision. She might not be able to roll that one to her own IRA without losing some of the attractive features, so it might just have to stay as a Spousal Beneficiary IRA.
My question: If it has to stay as a Spousal Bene IRA, when does she have to take the 1st RMD? I believe the rule was she could wait until the year after the deceased spouse would have been 70 1/2, so I think that would have been in 2022. But can she now wait until the year after the deceased spouse would have been age 72? So 2023? Or am I off base altogether?
Thanks in advance for any help!
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Fri, 2021-11-05 21:13
Her first beneficiary RMD would be required in the year spouse would have reached 72, which is 2022. Her 2022 divisor would be taken directly from the single life table newly effective in 2022. But since she is now 59.5 and beyond any early distribution penalty, if she finds that the annuity benefits are not negatively affected, she could elect ownership of the inherited IRA annuity anytime, and would be treated as the owner the entire year. That would eliminate RMDs until the year she reached 72 (2034). Again, she has no beneficiary RMD for 2021, but if she does not do the spousal rollover by the end of 2022, beneficiary RMDs must start in 2022 and since she is the sole spousal beneficiary, she can re enter the single life table (known as recalculation) each year after 2022 to get the new divisor. The 1.0 annual reduction does not apply.
Permalink Submitted by Jason McBride on Fri, 2021-11-05 21:31
Thank You, that is very helpful. To clarify, so if she has to start RMD’s next year, in 2022, when she will be 60, do I just go to the new single life table for age 60 and look at the divisor for age 60, which is 27.1 for the 1st year? And then for 2023 it would be 26.2 and so forth?
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Fri, 2021-11-05 22:02
Yes, that’s correct.