Bad News On The Required Minimum Distribution RMD Front For IRA And 401K Owners

There is no question that this has been a terrible year in the stock market.  If you have the majority of your holdings in stocks, this can cause big problems as you may have to sell stocks at a loss in order to pay your RMD.  In addition, many seniors believe that since the stock market went down significantly this year, so too will their RMD.  This is not necessarily true.  Your RMD for this year is based on the retirement account balances at the end of 2022, not 2023.  That’s why it is always a good idea to have some cash or money market funds in your retirement accounts so that you don’t have to liquidate stocks at an inconvenient time.  If you have cash outside of your IRA, one way to avoid selling stocks is to transfer stocks equivalent in value to the RMD from the retirement account to a regular brokerage account.  That way, you can hang onto the stocks and hopefully they will recover.

IRS Gives Relief To Taxpayers Who Inherited IRAs In 2020 And 2021

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The Internal Revenue Service has announced that it will delay enforcement new rules requiring withdrawals from some inherited retirement accounts until 2023.  This follows a myriad of complaints that the changes were confusing.  The relief applies to taxpayer complaining that the changes were confusing and applies to anyone who inherited retirement accounts in 2020 or 2021 who the IRS said had to take annual withdrawals right away instead of waiting until the end of a 10-year period to liquidate the accounts.  This means that this group of taxpayers is not required to take RMDs for 2021 and 2022.

Monterey, CA What Are The Tax Issues When Giving Money To A Non-Profit From An IRA

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One way to do this is to donate out of an IRA or other retirement account.  However, Leonard Sloane of the Wall Street Journal cautions that you need to be careful when planning this.  “So many people make mistakes with the rules,” says Andy Ives, an IRA analyst at Ed Slott & Company, a tax consulting firm.  One mistake people make is making a gift to a donor-advised fund (such as the Community Foundation of the Monterey Peninsula), a private foundation or charitable-gift annuity.  To obtain the tax benefit, there must be a full release of the funds directly to a charity.  Another mistake is when the donor accepts something in return for the gift.  You can’t even accept a tote bag, coffee mug or T-shirt as a gift!  Make sure you talk to a tax advisor before implementing this strategy.

New Rules For IRA Required Minimum Distributions

With the exception of the COVID-19 blip over the last two years, people are living longer and the IRS has changed the rules on Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) on IRA’s, 401(k)’s and 403(b)’s.  RMDs were suspended for 2020 because of COVID, but they are back.  You don’t have to take RMDs from Roth IRAs, but you do from non-Roth’s.  The 2019 Secure Act raised to 72 the age at which RMD’s kick in, up from 70.5 years, but not for people who were already taking RMDs in 2019.  Starting in 2022, many people will have RMD’s that are about 6-7% smaller than they would have been under the IRS’s old life expectancy tables.  Speak to your tax accountant because the rules have become very complex (See AARP Bulletin, December 2021, page 30).

Monterey, CA Avoid Taxes on Required Minimum IRA Distributions By Giving To Non-Profits

Although the IRS requires us to withdraw a certain amount each year from our retirement accounts in order to satisfy the Required Minimum Distribution requirements.  However, if you don’t need the money, you can transfer money directly to a non-profit via a qualified charitable distribution.  This can be done for a total of up to $100K per year and meet the IRS guideline.  You can split your contributions between as many charities as you want under IRS rules, although some banks do place a limit on this.  Talk to your bank and a local accounting firm like Hayashi & Wayland.

https://www.hw-cpa.com/

Carmel, CA New IRA Retirement Tool With No Early Withdrawal Penalties

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing a number of Americans to be laid off, many people are taking a close look at 72(t) plans, which allows you to withdraw money without the usual 10% penalty, even if you are below the age of 59.5 years old.  Dubbed 72(t) plans, they give you a series of equal payments taken at least annually.  The duration of the plan must be at least five years or until the person reaches 59.5 years, whichever is longer.  Talk to your tax planner, Monterey County Bank or one of our other local banks about this option.  Another possibility which was made as part of the Cares Act is an exemption to coronavirus-related distributions as another exception.  If you are interested in this option, act quickly as it’s only available until year end.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/early-ira-withdrawals-can-be-penalty-free-11607004008

New Legislation Could Boost Retirement Savings

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A bill from Rep. Richard Neal (D, Mass.) and Rep. Kevin Brady (R. TX) would boost the age for required minimum distributions (RMDs) from IRAs and 401 (k) accounts to 75, from 72.  It applies to those born after June 30, 1949.  It would also waive RMDs entirely who have a cume total of less than $100K.