I don't have any source to prove it can't be done but I say no.  There were two options - automatically do the three year spread or report all on 2020.

thanks!

I agree, the income is added "ratably" over three years.

The provision is for three-year spread, for disasters, and is not Special. Covid isn't any different.

The option to take it all at once was the Election. You could amend 2020 now, and report it all.

@qbteachmt  what @Jim-from-Ohio  is asking  is if after doing 1/3 on 2020 can he report 2/3 on 2021 and nothing on 2022.     It would be crazy to amend 2020 to report all the distribution...there would be penalties and interest to deal with.

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@qbteachmt wrote:

You could amend 2020 now, and report it all.

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No you can't.  That election needed to be "timely filed".

"is if after doing 1/3 on 2020 can he report 2/3 on 2021 and nothing on 2022"

Yes, and this is not the first time it was asked. That's what I was replying to. There was never the option to spread it out; that is the Default for disaster distributions. The option was to report it all in one year. The way to report the remainder in year two is when the taxpayer taking the distribution has since died.

"No you can't. That election needed to be "timely filed"."

Oh, true; that ship has now passed.

For this: "It would be crazy to amend 2020 to report all the distribution...there would be penalties and interest to deal with."

If a taxpayer had a significantly better year 2 of the 3, after a bad year 1 due to covid, then perhaps amending would have been cheaper than reporting that additional income in year 2 and year 3, now that they see how it turned out. Some who asked the question previously was weighing those differences.