The Department of the Treasury has released the Treasury Green Book for Fiscal Year 2017, which provides explanations of the President’s budget proposals. One such proposal (remember…these are just proposals, not actual changes in the law) that may affect your estate planning, if passed, is found on page 164 of the Green Book and is re-printed here for your convenience:
REQUIRE NON-SPOUSE BENEFICIARIES OF DECEASED IRA OWNERS AND RETIREMENT PLAN PARTICIPANTS TO TAKE INHERITED DISTRIBUTIONS OVER NO MORE THAN FIVE YEARS
Current Law
Minimum distribution rules apply to employer sponsored tax-favored retirement plans and to IRAs. In general, under these rules, distributions must begin no later than the required beginning date and a minimum amount must be distributed each year. For traditional IRAs, the required beginning date is April 1 following the calendar year in which the IRA owner attains age 70½. For employer-sponsored tax-favored retirement plans, the required beginning date for a participant who is not a five-percent owner is April 1 after the later of the calendar year in which the participant attains age 70½ or retires. Under a defined contribution plan or IRA, the minimum amount required to be distributed is based on the joint life expectancy of the participant or employee and a designated beneficiary (who is generally assumed to be 10 years younger), calculated at the end of each year.
Minimum distribution rules also apply to balances remaining after a plan participant or IRA owner has died. The after-death rules vary depending on (1) whether a participant or IRA owner dies on or after the required beginning date or before the required beginning date, and (2) whether there is an individual designated as a beneficiary under the plan. The rules also vary depending on whether the participant’s or IRA owner’s spouse is the sole designated beneficiary.
If a plan participant or IRA owner dies on or after the required beginning date and there is a nonspouse individual designated as beneficiary, the distribution period is the beneficiary’s life expectancy, calculated in the year after the year of death. The distribution period for later years is determined by subtracting one year from the initial distribution period for each year that elapses. If there is no individual designated as beneficiary, the distribution period is equal to the expected remaining years of the participant’s or IRA owner’s life, calculated as of the year of death.
If a participant or IRA owner dies before the required beginning date and any portion of the benefit is payable to a non-spouse designated beneficiary, distributions must either begin within one year of the participant’s or IRA owner’s death and be paid over the life or life expectancy of the designated beneficiary or be paid entirely by the end of the fifth year after the year of death.
If the designated beneficiary dies during the distribution period, distributions continue to any subsequent beneficiaries over the remaining years in the distribution period.
If a participant or IRA owner dies before the required beginning date and there is no individual designated as beneficiary, then the entire remaining interest of the participant or IRA owner must generally be distributed by the end of the fifth year following the individual’s death.
The minimum distribution rules do not apply to Roth IRAs during the life of the account owner, but do apply to balances remaining after the death of the owner.
Reasons for Change
The Code gives tax preferences for retirement savings accounts primarily to provide retirement security for individuals and their spouses. The preferences were not created with the intent of providing tax preferences to the non-spouse heirs of individuals. Because the beneficiary of an inherited account can be much younger than a plan participant or IRA owner, the current rules allowing such a beneficiary to stretch the receipt of distributions over many years permit the beneficiary to enjoy tax-favored accumulation of earnings over long periods of time.
Proposal
Under the proposal, non-spouse beneficiaries of retirement plans and IRAs would generally be required to take distributions over no more than five years. Exceptions would be provided for eligible beneficiaries.
Eligible beneficiaries include any beneficiary who, as of the date of death, is disabled, a chronically ill individual, an individual who is not more than 10 years younger than the participant or IRA owner, or a child who has not reached the age of majority. For these beneficiaries, distributions would be allowed over the life or life expectancy of the beneficiary beginning in the year following the year of the death of the participant or owner. However, in the case of a child, the account would need to be fully distributed no later than five years after the child reaches the age of majority.
Any balance remaining after the death of a beneficiary (including an eligible beneficiary excepted from the five-year rule or a spouse beneficiary) would be required to be distributed by the end of the calendar year that includes the fifth anniversary of the beneficiary’s death.
The proposal would be effective for distributions with respect to plan participants or IRA owners who die after December 31, 2016. The requirement that any balance remaining after the death of a beneficiary be distributed by the end of the calendar year that includes the fifth anniversary of the beneficiary’s death would apply to participants or IRA owners who die before January 1, 2016, but only if the beneficiary dies after December 31, 2016. The proposal would not apply in the case of a participant whose benefits are determined under a binding annuity contract in effect on the date of enactment.
Last year’s Green Book Proposal on the same topic can be read here.
