A client was not informed that he should take his first RMD in 2018. They sent him it in February 2019 and told he to report it on 5329 with 2018 taxes.

[IRonMaN · Accepted solution]

Toward the bottom of the 5329 there is a little section to fill out saying that they missed this RMD, but you are asking for forgiveness.  Fill that out and you should be good.  I don't think anybody ever gets turned down for the waiver request.  I think they even let Al Capone off the hook on that one.

[Marc-TaxMan]

Whose job is it to tell Client about RMD?
Somehow, I assume HRBlock-heads don't.
And my broker at *** does not know of my other accounts.
I think it's on Client, or maybe tax-preparer.
It's so easy to run a query for people in that age group, export Homebase view to Excel and then email that group with a BCC.  Oops:  query provides Clients TURNING 70.5 next year; NOT everyone.  I will do another HomeBase View with the dob columns.
Wow:  Did, done, emailed all my clients turning 70.5 next year and a different email to those already in RMD land.  That's something in a Foreign Universe to Intuit - called Customer Service.
If you have never exported view into Excel, I cannot rave too much how easy it is, even for a trog like me.

[Buddy100]

Should it be reported in 2019 since he received it in Feb 2019?

[IRonMaN]

The actual distribution will show up on a 1099R next year to report on his 2019 tax return.