Unfortunately, I am in RMD and IRMAA territory but am doing my best to account for that. Most of what you say makes sense to me except the following:
I agree. That's been my approach. I.e. selling shares not subject to the NUA until the value of the remaining shares is equal to the Gross Distribution on the 1099-R. At that point one can decide when to sell and report the sale as an NUA.
... which I find totally confusing. You indicate you agree with me but, at the same time, this answer seems to suggest if you sell only a certain subset of the shares, that you can, at least for the current tax year, avoid NII tax. What do you mean by "selling shares not subject to the NUA". For simplicity, assume there have been no share purchases or sales since the movement date to the taxable account and no dividend reinvestment and that your MAGI is high enough that you are already subject to NII tax. The only variable when you sell some or all of those shares is the value of the shares when you sell versus the value of the shares on the movement date. Actually, it may be simpler to just talk about the share price (assuming no splits/etc). Do you agree that, if the share price is higher now when you are considering selling some or all of those shares than it was on the movement date, that you will owe some NII tax and that whatever you are referring to in the bold-fonted answer is irrelevant?
Thanks for all your help!
