@DFH wrote:
All of the withdrawal went to QCDs, and the total withdrawn exceeded the RMD from that IRA. Could that have anything to do with the fact that the question about nondeductible contributions isn't asked?
Incidentally, isn't it true that if I had satisfied the total of all the RMDs required (based on their 12/31/18 balances and my age) with withdrawals from other IRAs which contain no bases, the IRS imputes a fraction of that total is return of nondeductible contributions not to be taxed? If so, then correctly answering the nondeductible contributions question for each IRA would not produce the correct result, namely that the basis of an IRA from which there was no withdrawal is decreased.
That's the answer. A QCD can ONLY come from before-tax money in the IRA and does not effect any basis - so the question will not be asked if the entire distribution was a QCD.
A QCD is excluded from taxable IRA income, since any after-tax basis in a IRA is not taxable, a QCD cannot be excluded from it so a QCD distribution does not reduce or affect any basis in the IRA.
And no, the IRS does not impute anything. For tax purposed you only have ONE Traditional IRA that is the aggregate total of all existing IRA accounts. The yearly 2019 RMD based on the total value of all IRA accounts as of December 31, 2018 can be taken from any one or several IRA accounts.
**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**
