Required Minimum Distributions and Qualified Charitable Distributions: Today’s Slott Report Mailbag

Thursday, April 11, 2024

By Andy Ives, CFP®, AIF®
IRA Analyst
Follow Us on X: @theslottreport

QUESTION:

Dear IRA Help,

My mother passed away in April of 2023 and no required minimum distribution (RMD) was taken. The entire IRA account was paid out to the charity that was the beneficiary. Was there a requirement to take the RMD?

Joe

ANSWER:

Joe,

Our condolences on the loss of your mother. Yes, she did have a year-of-death RMD, and the year-of-death RMD is the responsibility of the beneficiary. Since the beneficiary, in this case, was the charity, and since the charity received a full distribution of the IRA, then all is well. The 2023 year-of-death RMD was included in the lump sum distribution to the charity.

QUESTION:

Can qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) be taken from an inherited IRA? I have my own traditional IRA that I have been taking QCDs from. If I take the QCDs from my inherited IRA only, do I need to wait to take my RMD from the traditional IRA until after the QCDs have cleared from the inherited IRA?

ANSWER:

Inherited IRAs operate completely independently from a person’s own IRAs. Meaning, RMDs between the two cannot be aggregated. Distributions from one account have no impact on distributions from the other. As such, you do not need to wait for any transactions to clear from one account before transacting on the other. Assuming you meet all the normal QCD requirements (like being age 70 ½), then yes, QCDs can be done from your inherited IRA. As mentioned, the timing of these QCDs has no impact on the RMD requirements from your own IRA. The only overlap is that the total annual QCD limit is $105,000 for 2024, aggregated across all IRA accounts.

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