For most people, using and calculating RMD's rounded may work just fine. My financial institution (Schwab) however, does 2 of the 3 calculations on my IRA's to the penny and reports them to the penny. The 3rd RMD is required (and must be self calculated) for a beneficiary RMD (pre 2020, so RMD's for the lifetime of the beneficiary). I can, I've discovered, calculate that self-calculated number either to the penny (via several online calculation services) or to the whole dollar (same), but BECAUSE RMD's can be paid (not calculated - paid) from your own selection of the IRA's that you wish to use for such payment, their total and source, according to the IRS, must be precisely identifiable. That's what this worksheet box is supposed to do - make sure you're verifying sufficient payment or overpayment (from all your IRA's) REGARDLESS of which IRA's are the ones from which you're making payment. All the values involved in this calculation and eventual reporting to the IRS should be to the penny. Further, overpaying RMD's may be beneficial to anyone who wants to take their excess withdrawal and plow it into a Roth or other retirement arrangement, OR turn the excess into a non-taxable charitable contribution. Both those circumstances require correct calculation and reporting of the RMDs involved.
These calculations and apportionment of funds from multiple retirement accounts has got to be right, not just "whatever I choose"... There's a substantial penalty (perhaps not monetary, but certainly auditability to the IRS's gain) that I (and you) should want to avoid. There's no penalty for requiring all RMD calculations or payments to be to the penny, it's easy to do, and it should be easy (required?) for Intuit to spend brief time to examine and solve the problem. Without a formal way to post such a bug report at Intuit, I'm hoping someone will help get our discussion here to someone who can get it fixed. Thanks for all your feedback in the Community.
