TurboTax is asking for RMD information (1) on an IRA I don’t own and (2) when I am not old enough for RMD

[Yepper22]

I’m confused about information 2025 TurboTax is asking me about a particular Form 1099-R I received.  That 1099-R is for cash I received as a beneficiary of an IRA that was liquidated upon the passing of the original account owner. 

In the TurboTax section where I report that particular 1099-R, there is a page with the heading, “Let’s get more information about your Required Minimum Distribution.”  There it asks me for the amount of RMD that was required to be distributed by Dec. 31, 2025 from the account.

Question #1:  Why is TurboTax asking me since I am not now nor have I ever been an owner of that IRA?  Also, I didn’t inherit that IRA.  (On the page after entering the 1099-R detail, it asks me “Do any of these situations apply to you?”  I selected None of these apply.)  In addition, that IRA is closed and is totally/fully distributed in 2025.  And I am not old enough to be paying RMD anyway.  So, I don’t have any RMD.  So, I don’t know the answer to TT’s question, nor do I think I should know the answer. 

Question #2:  What should I input as the RMD amount that was required in 2025?  TurboTax doesn’t allow me to leave the answer field blank.

Thanks.

[RobertB4444]

An inherited IRA actually does have a Required Minimum Distribution based on the age of the person who it was inherited from.  

The easiest answer - and the correct one, in your case - is the exact amount that you received.  Just enter that as the RMD amount and you're all set.

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

Based on having said that you received a distribution as beneficiary, you did inherit an IRA.  If you received a distribution of the entire amount of this inherited IRA, you do not have any beneficiary RMDs and if the distribution occurred by the end of the year following the year of the IRA participant's death, the distribution satisfied any RMD that the decedent might have been subject to for the year-of-death.  All that matters is that TurboTax does not populate Form 5329 Part IX, and implementing RobertB4444's suggestion will prevent Part IX from being populated.  (You could also get the same result by saying no RMD was required.)

[Yepper22]

Dmertz and RobertB4444, thanks for your response (and sorry for my late reply). 

I now agree, as you said, that the rules say I inherited the IRA simply by being named as a beneficiary on the IRA -- and despite the fact I never owned the IRA and I received only cash as a beneficiary.  (It doesn’t make sense to me, but it is what it is.)  I also followed your advice to input $0 where TurboTax asks for the amount of RMD due by Dec. 31, 2025, which is true anyway.  Also, Form 5329 Part IX is not populated.

Thanks again for your help.