If a person receiving an retirement annuity passed away in August 2018, how is the required minimum distribution (RMD) calculated when reporting the beneficiary's payout?

[bglaves]

My father-in-law passed away mid-year. My wife was the sole beneficiary of his pension annuity and the remainder was paid out to her. The 1099 we recevied does not designate how much of the payment, if any, was RMD, and the answer appears to affect our taxable income. 

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

Since this distribution paid to your wife was not eligible for rollover, you can simply say that all of it was RMD.  TurboTax only asks this RMD question to determine how much of the distribution would be eligible for rollover absent any other factors that would prevent it from being eligible for rollover.  Since this distribution paid to your wife is not eligible for rollover under any circumstances, it doesn't matter how much you indicate is RMD.