Required Minimum Distribution on 401(a)

[DAS45]

Receiving monthly payments from employer 401(a) pension plan, totally paid by employer.  Did not receive any information on amount of RMD.  When I requested information I got the following response:

"For this account (401a Wisconsin retirement pension) there is no RMD as there is no balance technically.  Your account was annuitized when you retired.  From our account you will expect to receive a 1099R from us showing your total gross, net, and other deductions."

I report the gross distribution amount as taxable from amounts in Boxes 1 and 2a on 1099-R (same amount in both).

Is there still a RMD?

Do I answer YES or NO to "Was this withdrawal an RMD for 2021?

Do I check "Received all the RMD", Did not receive all the RMD", or "Was not required to take an RMD"?

Do I need to request a waiver?

[DoninGA]

You received all of the distribution as an RMD.  Pension payments are fully RMD's when distributed.

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

The purpose of the RMD rule is to make you withdraw money from your retirement account over your own lifetime instead of leaving a large tax-deferred account to your beneficiaries.  A traditional pension is based on your life expectancy ("your account was annuitized when you retired") and ends when you pass away, so it automatically meets the definition of a required distribution over your lifetime.

I don't know enough details of how the 1099-R works to know why some pensions get asked the RMD question and others don't, but if you are asked, it is perfectly ok to say that your payments do meet the requirements of the RMD rules. 

[DAS45]

Thank you

[MI46]

My husband took a loan against his IRA in December 2021 of $200,000 and also took out his RMD of $20,000.

The loan was paid back within 60 days, on January 28, 2022, and is not taxable.   The 1099R shows the total amount of $220,000 as gross and taxable (1 and 2a) and 7 in Box 7.   Turbotax Deluxe asks how much was taxable and he entered $20,000,  but then it asks what is in Box 7 and when he entered 7, it made all of the $220,000 taxable.   We want to file electronically, but this will need a written explanation.  The payer will not issue a new, or separate, 1099R.

How do we manage this?

[Opus 17]

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@MI46 wrote:

My husband took a loan against his IRA in December 2021 of $200,000 and also took out his RMD of $20,000.

The loan was paid back within 60 days, on January 28, 2022, and is not taxable.   The 1099R shows the total amount of $220,000 as gross and taxable (1 and 2a) and 7 in Box 7.   Turbotax Deluxe asks how much was taxable and he entered $20,000,  but then it asks what is in Box 7 and when he entered 7, it made all of the $220,000 taxable.   We want to file electronically, but this will need a written explanation.  The payer will not issue a new, or separate, 1099R.

How do we manage this?

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When you enter any 1099-R, you should see a screen for "what did you do with the money," and the choices are "Rolled over all to another account" and "something else."  When you click "something else," a further question opens to ask for details, and one of the choices is "rolled over part."  Indicate you rolled $200,000 over into a qualified account (the same account, in your case).  The remaining $20K will be taxed.

(What you did is considered a rollover, even though it was rolled back into the same account.)