2021 Direct trustee-to-trustee transfer during year-end

[Bort]

Hi all!  I started a trustee-to-trustee transfer in December 2021 from one Traditional IRA to another traditional  IRA.

The money left the original account in December; so the account shows a zero balance.

The money wasn't deposited in the new account until mid-January, so both account show a zero balance at year-end.

Question: how to report the value of all my Traditional IRAs on December 31, 2021? All paperwork states zero dollars. Is that what I should report to the IRS?

Thanks,

Bort

"

[dmertz]

This is called an outstanding transfer.  Any amount in transit between traditional IRAs and not included in any of the statements of December 31 IRA values must be added to the total that is shown on the statements.  You are not permitted to avoid an RMD by having the funds in transit between IRAs.  Similarly, if you made a distribution and have basis in nondeductible traditional IRA contributions, you are not permitted to artificially reduce the amount on line 6 of Form 8606 by having funds in transit between IRAs.