When my mother died in 1995, I rolled over her pretax pension monies into an annuity. For 30 years (the max at that time) I received a payout and recorded the taxable monies on my tax return. No problem. This year for the first time Turbo Tax asked whether it was an RMD. Assuming they meant was it a required withdrawal for me (what else could it have been) I said yes and my tax refund decreased by 25% of the amount I had received. Changing it back to no, I got the 25% back. My tax rate is no where near 25%. Why? What does Turbo Tax mean by an RMD here?
A Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) is the minimum amount the IRS requires you to withdraw annually from tax-deferred retirement accounts starting at age 73. Failure to withdraw the full RMD amount can result in a 25% penalty tax on the amount not taken (reduced to 10% if corrected in a timely manner).
Your financial institution that handles the annuity should have made you aware if you have an RMD for the year. Verify whether or not you have an RMD for this account and answer the question accordingly.
sorry I worded the question poorly. I understand an RMW, My question was - why did Turbo Tax decrease my refund by 25% of the RMW when I clicked YES. It should have been the reverse. Is it a glitch in Turbo Tax?
No. It is not a TurboTax glitch. The 25% IRS penalty is calculated if you "missed" an RMD that you were required to take.
I put it in quotes because in your case, your RMDs have been automatically calculated in that the payout itself is fulfilling your RMD.
Therefore, you can return to the software and, if you are asked about your RMD (probably due to your age now triggering the RMD prompts, which you understand), you can indicate that "All of this distribution was a RMD".
To designate the RMD amount from Form 1099-R, do the following: