Preamble-Final Regs-IRA-MRD

Federal Register: April 17, 2002 (Volume 67, Number 74)

ACTION: Final and temporary regulations.

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SUMMARY: This document contains final and temporary regulations relating to required minimum distributions from qualified plans, individual retirement plans, deferred compensation plans under section 457, and section 403(b) annuity contracts, custodial accounts, and retirement income accounts. These regulations will provide the public with guidance necessary to comply with the law and will affect administrators of, participants in, and beneficiaries of qualified plans; institutions that sponsor and individuals who administer individual retirement plans, individuals who use individual retirement plans for retirement income, and beneficiaries of individual retirement plans; and employees for whom amounts are contributed to section 403(b) annuity contracts, custodial accounts, or retirement income accounts and beneficiaries of such contracts and accounts. The text of the temporary regulations also serves as the text of the proposed regulations set forth in the notice of proposed rulemaking on this subject in the Proposed Rules section of the Federal Register.

EFFECTIVE DATE: These regulations are effective January 1, 2003.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background Top

This document contains amendments to the Income Tax Regulations (26 CFR Part 1) and to the Pension Excise Tax Regulations (26 CFR Part 54) under sections 401, 403, 408, and 4974 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (Code). These amendments conform the regulations to section 634 of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) (115 Stat. 117), section 1404 of the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 (SBJPA) (110 Stat. 1791), sections 1121 and 1852 of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA of 1986) (100 Stat. 2464 and 2864), sections 521 and 713 of the Tax Reform Act of 1984 (TRA of 1984) (98 Stat. 865 and 955), and sections 242 and 243 of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA) (96 Stat. 521). The regulations provide guidance on the minimum distribution requirements under section 401(a)(9) for plans qualified under section 401(a) and for other arrangements that incorporate the section 401(a)(9) rules by reference. The section 401(a)(9) rules are incorporated by reference in section 408(a)(6) and (b)(3) for individual retirement accounts and annuities (IRAs) (including Roth IRAs, except as provided in section 408A(c)(5)), section 403(b)(10) for section 403(b) annuity contracts, and section 457(d) for eligible deferred compensation plans.For purposes of this discussion of the background of the regulations in this preamble, as well as the explanation of provisions below, whenever the term employee is used, it is intended to include not only an employee but also an IRA owner.

Section 401(a)(9) provides rules for distributions during the life of the employee in section 401(a)(9)(A) and rules for distributions after the death of the employee in section 401(a)(9)(B). Section 401(a)(9)(A)(ii) provides that the entire interest of an employee in a qualified plan must be distributed, beginning not later than the employee's required beginning date, in accordance with regulations, over the life of the employee or over the lives of the employee and a designated beneficiary (or over a period not extending beyond the life expectancy of the employee and a designated beneficiary).

Section 401(a)(9)(C) defines required beginning date for employees (other than 5-percent owners and IRA owners) as April 1 of the calendar year following the later of the calendar year in which the employee attains age 70\1/2\ or the calendar year in which the employee retires. For 5-percent owners and IRA owners, the required beginning date is April 1 of the calendar year following the calendar year in which the employee attains age 70\1/2\, even if the employee has not retired. Section 401(a)(9)(D) provides that (except in the case of a life annuity) the life expectancy of an employee and the employee's spouse that is used to determine the period over which payments must be made may be redetermined, but not more frequently than annually.
Section 401(a)(9)(E) provides that the term designated beneficiary means any individual designated as a beneficiary by the employee. Section 401(a)(9)(G) provides that any distribution required to satisfy the incidental death benefit requirement of section 401(a) is a required minimum distribution.

Section 401(a)(9)(B)(i) provides that, if the employee dies after distributions have begun, the employee's interest must be distributed at least as rapidly as under the method used by the employee. Section 401(a)(9)(B)(ii) and (iii) provides that, if the employee dies before required minimum distributions have begun, the employee's interest must be either: distributed (in accordance with regulations) over the life or life expectancy of the designated beneficiary with the distributions beginning no later than 1 year after the date of the employee's death, or distributed within 5 years after the death of the employee. However, under section 401(a)(9)(B)(iv), a surviving spouse may wait until the date the employee would have attained age 70\1/2\ to begin taking required minimum distributions.

Comprehensive proposed regulations under section 401(a)(9) were previously published in the Federal Register on January 17, 2001 (REG- 130477-00/REG-130481-00; 66 FR 3928) and July 27, 1987 (EE-113-82; 52 FR 28070). The proposed regulations published in 2001 substantially simplified the rules for determining required minimum distributions for separate accounts provided in the 1987 proposed regulations. The public reaction to this simplification was very favorable. Consequently, these final regulations adopt the simplified rules in the 2001 proposed regulations for separate accounts, with the modifications described below in the Explanation of Provisions. These regulations continue to incorporate, with some modifications, applicable previously issued guidance (i.e., Notice 83-23 (1983-2 C.B. 418), Notice 88-38 (1988-1 C.B. 524), Notice 96-67 (1996-2 C. B. 235), and Notice 97-75 (1997-2 C.B. 337)). To the extent not modified or superceded by these regulations, the guidance in Notice 83-23 and Notice 97-75 remains in effect. For example, if an employer uses the same required beginning date for all employees regardless of whether the employee has retired by age 70\1/2\, during the period before an employee retires, the employee may determine the portion of any distribution that is eligible for rollover using the statutory definition of required beginning date.

With respect to annuity payments, the 2001 proposed regulations retained the basic structure of the 1987 proposed regulation. The preamble to the 2001 proposed regulations indicated that the IRS and Treasury were continuing to study these rules and specifically requested updated comments on current practices and issues relating to required minimum distributions from annuity contracts. Commentators provided information on the variety of annuity contracts being developed and available as insurance company products for purchase with separate accounts. In response to the comments received, temporary regulations under Sec. 1.401(a)(9)-6T significantly expand the situations in which annuity payments under annuity contracts purchased with an employee's benefit may provide for increasing payments. These regulations are being issued in proposed (REG-108697-02) and temporary form rather than final form in order to give taxpayers an opportunity to comment on these changes.

Explanation of Provisions

Uniform Lifetime Table Top

These final regulations retain the simplifications to the minimum distribution rules for separate accounts provided in the 2001 proposed regulations, including the calculation of the required minimum distribution during the individual's lifetime using a uniform table. The basic calculation for individual accounts provides that the required minimum distribution is determined by dividing the account balance by the distribution period. For lifetime required minimum distributions, there is a uniform distribution period for almost all employees of the same age. The uniform lifetime distribution period table is based on the joint life and last survivor expectancy of an individual and a hypothetical beneficiary 10 years younger. However, if the employee's sole beneficiary is the employee's spouse and the spouse is more than 10 years younger than the employee, a longer distribution period measured by the joint life and last survivor life expectancy of the employee and spouse is permitted to be used.

For years after the year of the employee's death, the distribution period is generally the remaining life expectancy of the designated beneficiary. The beneficiary's remaining life expectancy is calculated using the age of the beneficiary in the year following the year of the employee's death, reduced by one for each subsequent year. If the employee's spouse is the employee's sole beneficiary, the distribution period during the spouse's life is the spouse's single life expectancy. For years after the year of the spouse's death, the distribution period is the spouse's life expectancy calculated in the year of death, reduced by one for each subsequent year. If there is no designated beneficiary, the distribution period is the employee's life expectancy calculated in the year of death, reduced by one for each subsequent year.

New Mortality Tables Top

The 2001 proposed regulations provided that the life expectancies for purposes of section 401(a)(9) would be determined using the expected return multiples set forth in the regulations under section 72 that are used for other purposes under the Code. These tables, based upon the experience reflected in the 1983 individual annuity mortality table (without load), were adopted for purposes of section 72 in 1986 and had been used in both the 1987 proposed regulations and the 2001 proposed regulations under section 401(a)(9).

Section 634 of EGTRRA instructed the Secretary of Treasury to modify the life expectancy tables used for purposes of the minimum distribution rules to reflect current life expectancy. In accordance with that instruction, the final regulations adopt new tables of life expectancies to be used for determining required minimum distributions. The new tables were derived by starting with the basic 2000 individual annuity mortality table and projecting mortality improvement for the period 2000 through 2003 using the assumed mortality improvement factors that were adopted in developing the Annuity 2000 mortality table. The resulting mortality rates were blended using a fixed 50% male 50% female blend. The uniform lifetime table provided in these final regulations has also been adjusted to reflect these new mortality tables.
These new tables also may be used to determine an employee's (or IRA owner's) life expectancy, or the joint life and last survivor expectancy of an employee (or IRA owner) and designated beneficiary, for purposes of calculating the amount of substantially equal periodic payments under section 72(t)(2)(A)(iv) when applying a method permitted under A-12 of Notice 89-25 (1989-1 C.B. 662, 666). One of these methods allows use of the methodology underlying the minimum distribution calculations for separate accounts in which the account balance in the prior year is divided by life expectancy or joint life and last survivor expectancy. Under this method, the payments are not equal but are treated as substantially equal if the life expectancy is determined in a consistent manner. A series of substantially equal periodic payments under section 72(t)(2)(A)(iv) determined under this methodology will not be considered to have been modified merely because the new tables are used in the future to determine the annual periodic payments rather than the tables in the regulations under section 72.

Determination of the Designated Beneficiary     Top

The 2001 proposed regulations provided that, generally, the designated beneficiary is determined as of the end of the year following the year of the employee's death. Thus, any beneficiary eliminated by distribution of the beneficiary's benefit or through disclaimer during the period between the employee's death and the end of the year following the year of death is disregarded in determining the employee's designated beneficiary for purposes of calculating required minimum distributions. If, as of the end of the year following the year of the employee's death, the employee has more than one designated beneficiary and the account or benefit has not been divided into separate accounts or shares for each beneficiary, the beneficiary with the shortest life expectancy is the designated beneficiary. Further, if a person other than an individual is a beneficiary as of that date, the employee is treated as not having a beneficiary (except as provided below with respect to trusts).
Commentators applauded the basic principle of the approach in the 2001 proposed regulations but suggested that the designated beneficiary determination should be made before the end of the year following the year of death so that there will be adequate time to calculate and distribute the required minimum amount between the date the beneficiary determination is finalized and the end of the year following the year of the employee's death (i.e., the date that required minimum distributions to nonspouse designated beneficiaries must commence). In response to these comments, the date for determining the designated beneficiary has been changed to September 30 of the year following the year of the employee's death. In response to comments, these final regulations clarify that in order for a beneficiary to disclaim entitlement to a benefit for purposes of section 401(a)(9), the disclaimer must satisfy section 2518. Finally, the final regulations clarify that if a designated beneficiary dies during the period between the employee's date of death and September 30 of the year following the year of the employee's death, the individual continues to be treated as the designated beneficiary for purposes of determining the distribution period rather than the successor beneficiary.
Some commentators requested that final regulations provide that, if the employee's estate was named as the beneficiary in the beneficiary designation or the employee's estate became beneficiary by operation of law, the beneficiary of the estate or the beneficiary of the IRA named under the employee's will could replace the estate as beneficiary by September 30 of the year following the year of death. This change is not being adopted in these final regulations. The period between death and the beneficiary determination date is a period during which beneficiaries can be eliminated but not replaced with a beneficiary not designated under the plan as of the date of death. In order for an individual to be a designated beneficiary, any beneficiary must be designated under the plan or named by the employee as of the date of death.
These regulations retain the rule in the proposed regulations that, in determining an employee's beneficiaries for purposes of applying the multiple beneficiary rule or determining if the employee's spouse is the employee's sole beneficiary, all beneficiaries of the employee's interest in the plan, including contingent beneficiaries, are taken into account. The regulations also retain the exception to this rule under which, if a beneficiary (subsequent beneficiary) is entitled to any portion of an employee's benefit only if another beneficiary dies before the entire benefit to which that other beneficiary is entitled has been distributed by the plan, the subsequent beneficiary will not be considered a beneficiary. However, these regulations clarify that the exception from the multiple beneficiary rules for death contingencies only applies to a person who could be entitled to a portion of the employee's benefit by becoming the successor to the interest of one of the employee's beneficiaries after that beneficiary's death. The regulations provide that this rule does not apply to a person who has any right (including a contingent right) to an employee's benefit beyond being a mere potential successor to the interest of one of the employee's beneficiaries upon that beneficiary's death. Thus, for example, if one beneficiary has a right to any income on an employee's individual account during that beneficiary's life and another beneficiary has a right to the principal but only after the death of the income beneficiary (with any portion of the principal distributed during the life of the income beneficiary to be held in trust until that beneficiary's death), both beneficiaries must be taken into account in determining the beneficiary with the shortest life expectancy and whether only individuals are beneficiaries.

Default Rule for Post-Death Distributions     Top

These regulations, as did the 2001 proposed regulations, provide that, if an employee dies before the employee's required beginning date and the employee has a designated beneficiary, then the life expectancy rule in section 401(a)(9)(B)(iii) (rather than the 5-year rule in section 401(a)(9)(B)(ii)) is the default distribution rule. Thus, absent a plan provision or election of the 5-year rule, the life expectancy rule applies in all cases in which the employee has a designated beneficiary, and the 5-year rule applies if the employee does not have a designated beneficiary. This is a change from the position in the 1987 proposed regulations that provided the 5-year rule as the default unless the spouse was the sole beneficiary. Commentators pointed out that, as a result of the default rule under the 1987 regulations, some beneficiaries did not commence distributions under the life expectancy rules. In response to those comments, these final regulations provide a transition rule that permits beneficiaries subject to the 5-year rule under the 1987 proposed regulations to switch to the life expectancy rule, provided that all amounts that would have been required to be distributed under an application of the life expectancy rule are distributed by the earlier of December 31, 2003 or the end of the 5-year period following the year of the employee's death.

Temporary Rules for Defined Benefit Plans and Annuity Contracts     Top

These temporary regulations provide a number of changes to the annuity rules provided in the 2001 proposed regulations including changes designed to make the rules more consistent with the rules for individual accounts and reflect new product designs. In order to allow taxpayers to comment on these changes, the section of the regulations governing defined benefit plans and annuities is being issued as temporary and proposed regulations rather than final regulations. In response to comments, the following changes are being made. First, annuity payments are permitted to be provided for a period certain that is as long as the period under the uniform lifetime table for the employee's age in the year in which the annuity starting date occurs, regardless of who is the employee's designated beneficiary. Further, the period does not change upon the death of the employee even if the remaining period certain is longer or shorter than the beneficiary's single life expectancy. The same rule applies if the annuity also includes a life annuity or a joint and survivor annuity. If the employee's sole designated beneficiary is the employee's spouse, if the spouse is more than 10 years younger than the employee, and if the annuity is only for a period certain and does not have a life contingent element, the period certain can be as long as the joint life and last survivor expectancy of the employee and the employee's spouse. These temporary regulations retain the rules in the 2001 proposed regulations interpreting the minimum distribution incidental benefit requirement. Under these rules, if the survivor of a joint and survivor annuity is not the employee's spouse and if the survivor annuitant is more than 10 years younger than the employee, then the survivor portion must be less than 100% of the employee's benefit. In such a case, the survivor annuity must be reduced so that it does not exceed the employee's benefit multiplied by the percentage provided in the table in the regulations. However, the regulations clarify that if the joint and survivor annuity also has a period certain, the reduction in survivor annuity is only required after expiration of the period certain.
Further, in response to comments, the temporary regulations make a number of changes that expand the situations in which increasing annuity payments are permitted. The additional situations are generally only available to annuities purchased from insurance companies. Under these temporary regulations, an annuity purchased from an insurance company can increase annually by a constant percentage, provided that the initial payment is sufficiently large that the total expected payments, determined without regard to these increases, exceed the account value being annuitized. This minimum payment requirement, together with the adverse economic interests of the insurer and the annuity purchaser, effectively limits the constant percentage increase under an annuity to the assumed interest rate used in pricing the annuity.
These temporary regulations also provide explicit rules relating to the payments of dividends under participating annuity contracts. Under the temporary regulations, a variation in the amount of the annuity payment (referred to as a dividend or other payment resulting from favorable actuarial experience) can be made provided that: (1) The initial payment meets the minimum threshold described above, (2) actuarial experience is measured at least annually, and (3) the resulting dividend payment or other payment is either paid no later than the year following the year for which the actuarial experience is measured or is payable in the same form as the payment of the annuity over the remaining period of the annuity. These requirements are intended to preclude backloading of the distribution stream through the use of conservative pricing assumptions where actuarial gains with respect to those assumptions are deferred and paid at a later date. The definition of dividend or other payment resulting from actuarial gain is broad enough to encompass the contractual adjustment provided for in a variable annuity. Accordingly, the rules that permitted payments that vary with the investment performance of underlying assets has been replaced with this more general construct.
The temporary regulations allow full and partial withdrawals from purchased annuities in certain circumstances. The restrictions on these withdrawals are intended to preclude the use of a withdrawal or cash- out feature as a mechanism to distribute deferred actuarial gains. In the case of a full withdrawal (including a death benefit), the distribution must not exceed the expected future payments under the contract, taking into account the annuitants who are still alive and any remaining period certain, but without regard to any future increases. In the case of a partial withdrawal, the full withdrawal under the terms of the contract must satisfy the preceding sentence and, after the partial withdrawal, all future annuity payments must be reduced proportionately based on the ratio of the partial withdrawal to the maximum withdrawal under the terms of the contract.
As discussed above, these permitted increases are only available for insurance company products and not a distribution stream provided from a section 401(a) defined benefit trust. In addition, these temporary regulations do not permit annuity payments that vary with the value of the underlying assets of the plan to be provided by a defined benefit plan with a section 401(a) qualified trust. Further, these regulations clarify that an annuity under a defined benefit plan with a section 401(a) qualified trust is permitted to provide that annuity payments may increase with an annual percentage increase that does not exceed the percentage increase in a cost-of-living index that is based on prices of all items and issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Finally, the temporary regulations clarify that increases in these annuity payments to reflect benefit increases must be pursuant to a plan amendment increasing benefits.
The preamble to the 2001 proposed regulations indicated that the IRS and Treasury were continuing to consider whether retention of the rule allowing an employee's minimum required distributions under a defined benefit plan to be determined using the rules for individual accounts was appropriate for defined benefit plans. Few comments specifically requested retention of this rule. As a result, the IRS and Treasury have concluded that this rule has little application outside of being used to determine the portion of a lump sum distribution of an employee's vested accrued benefit that is eligible for rollover. Accordingly, this rule has not been retained in these temporary regulations except for use in determining the amount that is eligible for rollover when a defined benefit plan pays an employee's entire vested accrued benefit in a lump sum. However, in response to comments, these temporary regulations permit a plan to treat the amount of a year of annuity payments that would have been payable under the normal form as the minimum required distribution for a year in the case of a lump sum payment.
Finally, in response to a comment, these temporary regulations clarify that actuarial increases to benefits under a defined benefit plan required under section 401(a)(9)(C)(iii), as added by SBJPA, need not be provided for any period before January 1, 1997.

Incidental Benefit Requirement     Top

These final and temporary regulations provide rules relating to the interaction of the section 401(a)(9) requirements and the incidental benefit requirement of Sec. 1.401-1(b)(1)(i). Under these rules, generally if distributions with respect to an employee's benefit satisfy the minimum distribution incidental benefit requirement under these regulations, the distribution will be deemed to satisfy any requirement for distributions under the incidental benefit requirements of Sec. 1.401-1(b)(1)(i). However, if a plan provides for certain post- retirement ancillary death benefits or a section 403(b) contract includes an undistributed pre-1987 account, the employee's benefits must continue to satisfy the distribution requirements of the incidental benefit requirement of Sec. 1.401-1(b)(1)(i), determined without regard to these regulations. Existing revenue rulings continue to provide guidance with respect to the application of the incidental benefit requirements to permissible nonretirement benefits such as life, accident, or health benefits.

Trust as Beneficiary     Top

The final regulations retain the provision in the proposed regulations allowing an underlying beneficiary of a trust to be an employee's designated beneficiary for purposes of determining required minimum distributions when the trust is named as the beneficiary of a retirement plan or IRA, provided that certain requirements are met. One of these requirements is that documentation of the underlying beneficiaries of the trust be provided to the plan administrator or IRA trustee, custodian, or issuer. In the case of individual accounts, unless the lifetime distribution period for an employee is measured by the joint life expectancy of the employee and the employee's spouse, the deadline under these regulations for providing the beneficiary documentation is October 31 of the year following the year of the employee's death, rather than the end of the year following the year of the employee's death as provided under the 2001 proposed regulations. This deadline for providing the trust documentation is coordinated with the deadline for determining the employee's designated beneficiary. Amendments to the 1987 proposed regulations published in 1997 eliminated the requirement that the trust be irrevocable before death. Commentators indicated that some beneficiaries would have qualified for a longer distribution period as a result of this change except for the fact that they had not provided the required documentation by the deadline provided in the regulations, which, in some cases, was a date before the regulation was published. Consequently, the commentators requested that final regulations provide a transition period for providing this documentation. In response to these comments, these regulations provide that, if the date for providing this documentation is before October 31, 2003, the documentation is permitted to be provided to the plan administrator (or IRA trustee, custodian, or issuer) until October 31, 2003. Commentators asked for clarification as to whether an election by a revocable trust to be treated as part of an estate under section 645 causes the trust to be treated as an estate for purposes of section 401(a)(9). On this point, the IRS and Treasury intend that a revocable trust will not fail to be a trust for purposes of section 401(a)(9) merely because the trust elects to be treated as an estate under section 645, as long as the trust continues to be a trust under state law.

Separate Accounts     Top

Several commentators requested clarification concerning when an employee's individual account can be divided into separate accounts that are permitted to satisfy section 401(a)(9) separately and concerning whether separate accounts could also provide for separate investments. In response to these comments, these final regulations provide that separate accounts with different beneficiaries under the plan can be established at any time, either before or after the employee's required beginning date. However, the final regulations provide that the separate accounts are recognized for purposes of determining required minimum distributions only after the later of the year of the employee's death (whether before or after the required beginning date) and the year the separate accounts are established. In addition, the final regulations clarify that, in order to determine the distribution period for the separate account by disregarding the beneficiaries of the other separate account, the separate account must be established no later than the end of the year following the year of the employee's death.
The separate accounting must allocate all post-death investment gains and losses for the period prior to the establishment of the separate accounts on a pro rata basis in a reasonable and consistent basis among the separate accounts for the different beneficiaries. The separate accounting must also allocate any post-death distribution to the separate account of the beneficiary receiving that distribution. Once the separate accounts are established, the final regulations permit the separate accounting to provide for separate investments for each separate account.

Elimination of Optional Forms of Benefit     Top

Some commentators requested relief under section 411(d)(6) for the elimination of optional forms of benefit that were needed to satisfy section 401(a)(9) under the 1987 proposed regulations but that are no longer needed to satisfy these final regulations. For defined contribution plans, this relief generally is not needed because paragraph (e) of A-2 of Sec. 1.411(d)-4 gives broad authority to employers to amend their defined contribution plan to eliminate installment payout options as long as the right to a lump sum option payable at the same time is preserved. These final regulations also provide that, pursuant to section 411(d)(6)(B), a plan will not fail to satisfy section 411(d)(6) merely because the plan is amended to eliminate the availability of an optional form of benefit to the extent that the optional form does not satisfy section 401(a)(9). However, the IRS and Treasury invite public comment if additional relief under section 411(d)(6) is needed in order for defined benefit plans to satisfy section 401(a)(9).

Election of Surviving Spouse To Treat an Inherited IRA as Spouse's Own IRA     Top

These final regulations generally retain the clarifications in the 2001 proposed regulations regarding how and when a surviving spouse of a deceased IRA owner can elect to treat an IRA inherited by the surviving spouse from that owner as the spouse's own IRA. The 1987 proposed regulations provided that this election is deemed to have been made if the surviving spouse contributes to the IRA or does not take the required minimum distribution for a year under section 401(a)(9)(B) as a beneficiary of the IRA. Under the 2001 proposed regulations, this deemed election is permitted to be made only after the distribution of the required minimum amount for the account, if any, for the year of the individual's death. These final regulations provide that the election can be made at any time after the IRA owner's date of death, while clarifying that the minimum required distribution for the calendar year of the IRA's owner's death is determined assuming the IRA owner lived throughout the year. These regulations also clarify that the surviving spouse is required to receive a minimum distribution for the year of the IRA owner's death only to the extent that the amount required was not distributed to the owner before death.
Some commentators raised concerns about the other clarifications in the 2001 proposed regulations. The 2001 proposed regulations clarified that a deemed election is permitted only if the spouse is the sole beneficiary of the account and has an unlimited right to withdraw from the account. This requirement is not satisfied if a trust is named as beneficiary of the IRA, even if the spouse is the sole beneficiary of the trust. As explained in the 2001 preamble, these clarifications make the election consistent with the underlying premise that the surviving spouse could have received a distribution of the entire decedent IRA owner's account and rolled it over to an IRA established in the surviving spouse's own name as IRA owner. If the spouse actually receives a distribution from the IRA, the spouse is permitted to roll that distribution over within 60 days into an IRA in the spouse's own name to the extent that the distribution is not a required distribution, regardless of whether or not the spouse is the sole beneficiary of the IRA owner. Further, if the distribution is received by the spouse before the year that the IRA owner would have been 70\1/2\, no portion of the distribution is a required minimum distribution for purposes of determining whether it is eligible to be rolled over by the surviving spouse.

IRA Reporting of Required Minimum Distributions     Top

The 2001 proposed regulations required the trustee, custodian, or issuer of an IRA to report the amount of the required minimum distribution from the IRA at the time and in the manner provided under additional guidance issued by the IRS and applicable IRS forms and instructions. A significant number of commentators objected to the requirement that the amount of the required minimum distribution for a year be reported because of concerns that the number may be inaccurate in certain cases. After thorough consideration of these comments and consultation with interested parties, the final regulations continue to provide authority to the Service to determine the extent to which the trustee, custodian, or issuer of an IRA must report information with respect to the required minimum distribution from that IRA through guidance of general applicability as well as forms and publications. In conjunction with these final regulations a notice is being published that specifies the reporting requirements that apply. Beginning in 2004, trustees, custodians, and issuers must identify to the IRS on Form 5498 each IRA for which a minimum distribution is required to be made to an IRA owner. The trustee, custodian or issuer does not need to report the amount of the required distribution to the IRS. However, the trustee, custodian, or issuer of such an IRA, must provide additional information regarding the IRA to the IRA owner required to receive a minimum required distribution, beginning with the minimum required distribution for 2003. The trustee, custodian or issuer of the IRA either must report the amount of the required minimum distribution for the IRA to the IRA owner, or must advise the IRA owner that a minimum distribution with respect to the IRA is required for the year, offer to calculate the amount of the required minimum distribution for the IRA owner upon request, and then, if requested, calculate the amount and provide it to the IRA owner. Although the delegation of authority in the regulations to require reporting would permit reporting to be required with respect to required minimum distributions to beneficiaries, no reporting is required with respect to beneficiaries at this time.
The reporting provisions in the 2001 proposed regulations, these final regulations, and the notice being published are intended to assist taxpayers in complying with the minimum distribution requirement. However, the Treasury and the IRS continue to have concerns about the overall level of compliance in this area and intend to monitor the effect of the new reporting regime on compliance to determine whether it would be appropriate to modify the regime in the future.

Calculation Simplification     Top

In response to comments that there are too many variables that might change during a distribution calendar year for an accurate calculation of the required minimum distribution for the year by the trustee at the beginning of the year, a number of simplifying changes are included in these final regulations. For lifetime distributions, the marital status of the employee is determined on January 1 each year. Divorce or death after that date is disregarded until the next year. Further, a change in beneficiary due to the spouse's death is not recognized until the following year. Contributions and distributions made after December 31 of a calendar year are disregarded for purposes of determining the minimum distribution for the following year. An employee's account balance for the valuation calendar year that is also the employee's first distribution calendar year is no longer reduced for a distribution on April 1 to satisfy the minimum distribution requirement for the first distribution calendar year. Contributions made after the calendar year that are allocated as of a date in the prior calendar year are no longer required to be added back. The only exceptions are rollover amounts, and recharacterized conversion contributions, that are not in any account on December 31 of a year. These changes are made to the qualified plan rules as well as IRA rules to maintain the parity between the rules.

Other Rules for IRAs     Top

These final regulations retain the general rule that the rules applying section 401(a)(9) to qualified plans apply also to IRAs, unless otherwise provided. In addition to retaining the special rules for IRAs provided in the 2001 proposed regulations, these final regulations provide a special rule for trustee-to-trustee transfers between IRAs to coordinate with the rule that allows aggregation of IRA distributions. Although the IRA to IRA transfer is not treated as a distribution for purposes of section 401(a)(9), in light of the fact that the required minimum distribution with respect to the transferor IRA can be taken from any IRA, the transferor IRA will be able to transfer the entire balance and will not be required to retain the amount of the required minimum distribution for the year.

Section 403(b) Contracts     Top

These regulations retain the basic rule in the 1987 and 2001 proposed regulations that a section 403(b) contract is treated as an individual retirement plan for purposes of satisfying the required minimum distribution rules. Consequently, the delegation of authority to require reporting with respect to IRAs also applies to section 403(b) contracts. However, the notice being issued in conjunction with these regulations provides that no reporting is required at this time with respect to required minimum distributions from section 403(b) contracts.
As requested in comments to the 1987 and the 2001 proposed regulations, these regulations provide that an annuity provided with respect to a section 403(b)(9) retirement income account will not fail to satisfy the requirements for annuity payment under an annuity contract merely because the annuity is not provided under a contract purchased from an insurance company.
Section 1852(a) of TRA '86 applied section 401(a)(9) to section 403(b) contracts effective for benefits accruing after December 31, 1986. The final regulations retain the rule in the proposed regulations interpreting the effective date of section 1852(a) of TRA '86 that does not apply section 401(a)(9) to the undistributed portion of the employee's account balance in a section 403(b) contract as of December 31, 1986 (the pre-'87 account balance). Further, the final regulations clarify that a contract will not lose the grandfather for a pre-'87 account balance merely because the account balance is transferred from one section 403(b) contract to another, provided the issuer of the transferee contract satisfies the recordkeeping requirements for the pre-'87 account balance. However, a distribution and rollover (including a direct rollover) of an amount from the pre-'87 account will cause that amount to lose the grandfather treatment.

Amendment of Qualified Plans     Top

The IRS intends to publish procedures in the near future that will provide guidance on amending qualified plans to reflect these final regulations under section 401(a)(9).
Amendment of IRAs and Effective Date

Rev. Proc. 2002-10 (2002-4 I.R.B. 401), provides guidance on when IRA documents must be updated for these final regulations and for changes made by EGTRRA.

Effective Date     Top

The regulations apply for determining required minimum distributions for calendar years beginning on or after January 1, 2003. For determining required minimum distributions for calendar year 2002, taxpayers may rely on these final regulations, the 2001 proposed regulations, or the 1987 proposed regulations.