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RMD Retirement Plan After Turning 70 1/2 Years Old & Penalties

RMD Retirement Plan above 70 Years Old

RMD for IRA Withdrawal, Penalties: Age 70½ & Above

RMD is referred to the minimum amount of money you are required to withdraw from a tax-deferred retirement plan and pay ordinary income taxes on after you reach a specific age.

How to Determine When to Withdraw Money After Turning 70 1/2 Years Old?

if your age is 70-72 years and has a traditional IRA, a 401(k), or a SEP IRA, then you are allowed to take at least the minimum amount as per the tax law from those accounts every year.

Taxpayers are not allowed to keep funds in their qualified retirement plans indefinitely as per the tax laws. Eventually, assets must be distributed, and taxes must be paid on those distributions.

In case the retirement plan owner takes no distributions, or if these distributions are not large enough to satisfy the amount required by the law, he or she might need to pay a 50% penalty on the amount that is not distributed.

For each type of retirement plan, the amount required to be distributed is figured out separately. This means, if more than the required amount is distributed from a traditional IRA, the excess amount can’t be applied to the RMD needed to be distributed from a 401(k) in which the IRA owner has participated.

As soon as the retirement plan owner attains the age of 70, RMDs must begin in the same year as well.

This can be noted that the first year’s distribution can be delayed to no later than April 1 of the subsequent year. In case there is a delay in the first distribution, there will be two distributions for the subsequent year: one for the age 70-1/2 year and one for the subsequent year, which may or not provide a tax benefit.

Roth 401(k) offers tax advantages

For example, individuals who turn age 70 in the first half of 2019 will be 70-1/2 by the end of 2019 and 2019 will be the first year of their RMDs; they can take their first distribution any time in 2019 but can postpone the withdrawal up to no later than April 1, 2020. The next distribution would need to be taken by December 31, 2020.

Those turning 70 in the second half of 2019 won’t be age 70-1/2 until sometime in the first six months of 2020, so their first distribution should be in 2020 but could be delayed until April 1, 2021, and their next RMD would have to be by December 31, 2021.

The required withdrawal amount for a given year is equal to the value of the retirement account on December 31 of the prior year divided by the life expectancy from the Uniform

Lifetime Table.

Uniform Lifetime Table
Age Life Age Life Age Life Age Life Age Life
70 27.4 80 18.7 90 11.4 100 6.3 110 3.1
71 26.5 81 17.9 91 10.8 101 5.9 111 2.9
72 25.6 82 17.1 92 10.2 102 5.5 112 2.6
73 24.7 83 16.3 93 9.6 103 5.2 113 2.4
74 23.8 84 15.5 94 9.1 104 4.9 114 2.1
75 22.9 85 14.8 95 8.6 105 4.5 115 1.9
76 22.0 86 14.1 96 8.1 106 4.2
77 21.2 87 13.4 97 7.6 107 3.9
78 20.3 88 12.7 98 7.1 108 3.7
79 19.5 89 12.0 99 6.7 109 3.4
Example: Jack is age 72, and his traditional IRA account had a balance of $150,000 as of the end of the prior year (December 31). From the table, we find the distribution period for age 72 to be 25.6 years. So, Jack’s RMD for his IRA account is $5,859 ($150,000/25.6).

There may be cases when an individual may withdraw more than the RMD for a given year, the amount in excess of the RMD can’t be applied to offset the next year’s required distribution. It does, however, reduce the balance in the retirement plan account that will be used to calculate the next year’s RMD.

Two tables are not illustrated because of their size: the Joint and Last Survivor Table, which is used to determine RMDs when the sole beneficiary is a spouse who is more than 10 years younger than the plan owner, and the Single Life Table, which is used for certain beneficiary RMD determinations.

roth-401k-traditional-401k

Roth IRAs

– If the Roth IRA owner is alive, there are no minimum distributions required from a Roth IRA. This perfectly means that those individuals who don’t need to utilize their Roth IRA to meet expenses during retirement can leave it untapped for their heirs.

This exception does not apply to qualified designated Roth 401(k) and 403(b) plans, which are subject to the RMD rules.

Still-Working Exception

– An exception to the RMD requirement applies to certain plan participants who are still working.

An employee’s required beginning date (RBD) for receiving distributions from a qualified plan is April 1 of the year following the later of the calendar year when the employee reaches age 70-1/2 or the calendar year when he or she retires from employment, with the employer maintaining the plan.

The employer’s plan may require the retirement plan participant to begin RMDs under the normal rules, in which case the taxpayer cannot take advantage of the “still working” exception. In addition, this rule does not apply to distributions from IRAs (including those established in conjunction with a SEP or SIMPLE IRA plan) or from qualified plans to more-than-5% owners.

Under-Distribution Penalty

– As it can be seen in the previous example, if Jack does not withdraw the $5,859, he will have to pay $2,930 (50% penalty). There are certain situations where the IRS will waive off the penalty if the taxpayer is able to justify a valid reason and is able to make a withdrawal following the deficit in the distribution.

Even if there is a case that a qualified plan owner whose total income is smaller than the return-filing threshold then it’s not needed to file a tax return, he or she will still be subject to the RMD rules and thus be liable for the under-distribution penalty, even in case no income tax would have been due on the under-distribution.

IRA-to-Charity Transfers:

There is a provision in the tax law that allows taxpayers age 70-½ or over to transfer up to $100,000 annually from IRAs to qualified charities. This may help offer significant tax benefits for all those who are into making large donations to the charities.

Here is how this provision, if utilized properly, plays off:

(1) The IRA distribution is exempted from income;

(2) The distribution counts toward the taxpayer’s RMD for the year; and

(3) The distribution does not count as a charitable contribution.

For the very first time, it may not offer any tax benefit to the users. However, by excluding the distribution, a taxpayer lowers his or her adjusted gross income (AGI), thus allowing him or her to attain certain tax breaks (or avoid certain punishments) that are pegged at AGI levels.

The tax benefits related to it include medical expenses, passive losses, and taxable social security income. In addition, non-itemizers benefit from the charitable contribution deduction to offset the IRA distribution.

There are innumerable cases where planning in advance can minimize or put an end to the taxes on qualified plan distributions. It can be seen that at many times various situations arise in which the income of a taxpayer is abnormally low because of extraordinary deductions, losses or any other factors. This, in turn, gives a view that taking more than the minimum in a given year can offer beneficial results.

Beneficiaries – One important issue is naming beneficiaries to your retirement accounts and keeping them current. It is easy to forget to make beneficiary changes due to death, divorce, or other reasons. A good example is that you might not want your ex-spouse getting your retirement account funds.

When someone inherits a qualified plan or an IRA, he or she must generally begin taking RMDs no later than December 31 of the year following the owner’s death.

What Happens After the Death of a Plan Holder?

This may sound weird, but yes, it is a real concern for a lot of people these days. The required minimum distribution still applies after the death of a plan holder. For the following year, the required minimum distribution will depend on the age of the beneficiary.

What can be done if you want to waive off the taxes?

To qualify for the waiver, you will need to meet a few points provided by the IRS, including (but not limited to):

  • If your home was severely damaged.
  • If one of your family members was seriously ill or died.
  • A distribution check was misplaced and never deposited.
  • You were incarcerated or foreign country-imposed restrictions on you.

If you have questions related to RMDs or are a beneficiary of a retirement plan and need to determine your distribution options, please give us call and contact our CPA in fremont CA.

 

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