I turned 70 1/2 in June of 2019. I know I have to take my first RMD for 2019 by April 15. Must I report this distribution on my 2019 return? Or can I wait for 2020?

[dmertz]

The deadline for taking this distribution is April 1, not April 15.

This distribution taken in 2020 will be reported on your 2020 tax return and will add to your 2020 taxable income along with your 2020 RMD due to be taken by the end of 2020.

Assuming that you have Forms 1099-R to enter for distributions made in 2019, after clicking the Continue button on the Your 1099-R Entries page tell TurboTax that you received all of your RMD for 2019 to avoid TurboTax mistakenly generating Form 5329 to report a missed RMD.  This question in TurboTax is badly worded to accommodate the individual taking their first RMD early the following year as permitted.

[djdeckman]

I had a slightly different situation. I had one 2019 RMD taken in January 2020; the rest were taken in 2019 because I turned 70 1/2. For the remainder of my applicable 1099-R accounts, I made a withdrawal, most of which were equivalent to the required RMD. I understand that RMDs were not required in 2020. TurboTax seems to apply the same answer to the question whether the withdrawal was part or all of an RMD for all my accounts. That is, I can't answer Yes for the 2019 RMD but No for the remaining withdrawals. I don't see a problem if I answer Yes for all the accounts; however, most of the responses to similar questions I've seen recommended answering No because the RMD wasn't required.

[DianeW777]

I agree with you.  Answering yes or no does not really matter if you did take distribution and did not intend to pay it back to your retirement account.

It is taxable and there is no penalty. Either way the tax return results will be the same in your situation.

Please update here is there is any confusion.

[djdeckman]

Thank you for the reply. I'm going to answer Yes that these withdrawals were for an RMD just to keep it simple. I have the latest version of TurboTax, and it still applies the same answer regarding RMDs to all the accounts.