IRS Notice 2022-53 waived beneficiary RMD requirement for tax year 2021 and 2022, if the IRA owner died in 2020 and 2021 and on or after required beginning date.
My client is a 50% successor beneficiary of his uncle's inherited IRA from the grandpa who reached the required beginning date at the time of death in 2019. The uncle, who has been taking RMD for this IRA account, died in his 60's in 2022. As mentioned earlier, my client was named on the uncle's plan doc to receive 50% beneficiary interest of this IRA account. My client's financial advisor advised, as his late uncle didn't take the RMD in 2022 yet, my client need to take 50% of the RMD on behalf of his uncle. Is this advise really correct?
I think my client is not required to take RMD in 2022.
First of all, I think the IRS Notice 2022-53's broader rationale is not to enforce the exercise tax penalty prior to 2023 in order to provide taxpayer relief before finalizing the 10-year rule guidance, so even the uncle died in 2022, but not 2020 or 2021, my client should not be penalized for fail to take the RMD. However, the IRS can argue that my client is taking the RMD that the uncle supposed to take in 2022, that was resulted from the grandpa's death in 2019, thus not covered by the IRS Notice 2022-53.
Even without applying the IRS notice 2022-23, shouldn't my client, who is not a sole beneficiary of the inherited IRA, have until 09/30/23, but not 12/31/2022, the year of his uncle's death, to be the designated beneficiary and start to take the distributions as required then?
I might be missing something here...any insights are highly appreciated!
