|
Required Minimum Distributions Waived in 2020
Under the SECURE Act that was enacted this past December, IRA owners and certain participants in qualified retirement plans are required to take distributions beginning at the age of 72. The mandatory beginning age had been 70½. Under the CARES Act, for the year 2020 there will be no mandatory distributions - no matter the age of the account owner.
Many people have seen a precipitous drop in the balances of their retirement funds, and this provision allows those accounts to recover before forcing the liquidation of possibly depressed securities they may hold in order to make required distributions.
The minimum age for making a tax-free transfer from an IRA to a charity remains at 70½, and the annual limit for such transfers remains at $100,000. However, because of the modification of deduction limits in 2020, one could exceed this limit.
Example: A donor over the age of 59½ with a large IRA balance not needed for living expenses wants to give more of that IRA now but do so without paying taxes. In 2020, the donor withdraws $500,000 from the IRA and then contributes it to charity. This adds $500,000 to adjusted gross income, but the donor can deduct the entire $500,000 since charitable gifts in 2020 are deductible to the full extent of adjusted gross income. (This is explained further in the “Deduction Limits Increased for Cash Gifts” section that follows.) The deduction offsets the taxable income, which is the equivalent of a tax-free charitable rollover.
Your situation might be quite different. Maybe you want to make a gift from your IRA in the future but not now because it has lost quite a bit of its value. Thus you elect to make no withdrawals this year, let the account recover, and either next year or in the year you attain the age of 72 make charitable transfers to count towards your mandatory distribution requirements. |
