Do I Have to Follow IRA Minimum Distribution Rules?

IRA minimum distributions, also known as IRA RMDs, are not fully comprehended by all regarding retirement funds. When are you supposed to take your IRA minimum distribution and how much do you withdraw? To get a clear picture about various retirement distribution policies and to know the importance of your IRA minimum distribution, this post provides answers.

First and foremost, it must be known that the IRA minimum distribution is an essential component of conventional IRAs – due to the reason that IRA tax benefits are provided to you when you contribute to the IRA and there comes a time when IRA wants to collect these deferred taxes. the tax deduction you get when you contribute to your IRA is not permanent but rather the do referral of the taxes until later in life. The fact that you must repay this tax loan does not mean it is useless. It has two significant benefits for you:

A. You get to use the IRS' money for several decades to earn income on their money (within your IRA)

B. The theory is that when you retire, you are in a lower tax bracket than when you're working and therefore, you repay IRS at a lower tax rate

These incentives encourage workers to save for their own retirement (instead of relying on disappearing corporate pensions or the dwindling Social Security trust fund).

At present, the conventional IRA account holders are to take the first IRA minimum distribution by April 1st of the year following when will be 70½ years old. You then take another distribution each year thereafter for as long as you live. Note that it is best to take your first distribution in the year that you turn age 70 1/2 rather than waiting until the following April 1. If you wait until the following April 1, you will also need to take another distribution in that same calendar year for year two of your IRA minimum distribution schedule. You will therefore "double up" in your first year and potentially push yourself into a higher tax bracket, needlessly.

Participants who fail to initiate their IRA minimum distribution as specified (or those who withdraw less than the required minimum distribution) are subject to IRA penalties. Basically, these penalties take the shape of a 50% excise tax on the money that was supposed to be withdrawn, plus the account holder's normal rate of federal tax and any appropriate state tax. There are no exceptions to the IRA minim um withdrawal rules for conventional IRAs.

The way around these rules is by converting your conventional IRA to a Roth IRA. Roth IRA accounts do not have IRA minimum distribution requirements.

The rationale behind this difference is that Roth retirement accounts do not provide any tax benefit at the time of contribution. As such, nothing is owed to IRS. So why doesn't everyone convert their conventional IRA to a Roth IRA? The trade-off is that the while the Roth IRA will obviate the need for annual IRA minimum distributions in your retirement years, you will need to pay the accumulated tax in your conventional IRA now in order to do the conversion. Assuming a 30% IRA tax bracket and $100,000 IRA balance, you would need to pay the IRS $30,000 now to make this conversion. Unfortunately, most will resist the current payment regardless of the significant future benefits.