IRS Guidance on the new rules

The IRS has released Notice 2020-6, which provides some early comments on a couple of details on the change in retirement plan distribution rules.

The first provides some relief to custodians who may include erroneous information about the Required Beginning Date when sending a required form to owners.

The other is directed to advisors of those individual IRA and 401-k owners who are right at the age 70-71 boundary. In its typical fashion, this IRS notice tells them:

The SECURE Act did not change the required beginning date for IRA owners who attained age 70-1⁄2 prior to January 1, 2020. In order to reduce misunderstanding among IRA owners, the IRS encourages all financial institutions, in communicating these RMD changes, to remind IRA owners who attained age 70-1⁄2 in 2019, and have not yet taken their 2019 RMDs, that they are still required to take those distributions by April 1, 2020. 

Enter the IRS Translator. What this means in English is: If you were born after June 1948 but before July 1949, your Required Beginning Date is still April 1, 2020 and this will not change.

Your first required distribution, which must be taken by that date, will be for 2019, based on the account value as of December 31, 2018. The 2020 distribution will need to be taken this year as well.

(h/t Kitces)