Retirement tax questions

@mjc4maureen 

With luck, I can wrap this up,  referencing your original question and the additional information you have added, and leaving out the mistake I made.

 

For your traditional IRAs, the accounts will be transferred to your beneficiaries as "inherited IRAs". They can rollover the money to a different broker if they like, but it must remain an inherited IRA (this designation will be applied by the broker).  They must withdraw the funds within 10 years, and pay regular income tax when they do so.  They have no other withdrawal requirement or schedule to follow, even if you have passed your RMD starting date before you died.

 

If you did not take your RMD for that year from a traditional IRA  before you died, the RMD must be calculated and distributed to your beneficiaries, who pay the income tax, before the remaining balance can be divided.  This is one of the duties of your executor, and your broker will certainly help.  The RMD does not go on your final tax return or on an estate tax return.  

 

For your Roth IRAs, since you opened your Roth IRA in 2005, you have already fulfilled your 5 year holding period.  Your beneficiaries will receive Roth IRA account also labeled as "inherited."  Your beneficiaries must withdraw all the funds within 10 years, there is no other required schedule.  All withdrawals by your heirs will be tax-free, regardless of the date of your death or any IRA to Roth conversions you have done recently.  Roth IRAs have no RMD requirement, so there is no "final RMD" needed for the year of your death. 

 

Once the beneficiaries withdraw the money (and pay tax, if it is withdrawn from a traditional IRA) they can do anything with the money that they want, it's all just money at that point.  They can contribute to a new IRA (if they have compensation from working) or they can invest in a broker account, or pay college tuition, or anything else that can be done with money.  The one thing they can't do is rollover or convert the inherited IRA into a regular IRA in their own name and keep the money for the rest of their lives.  They must withdraw all funds within 10 years. 

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