IRS announces Rollover Relief for Required Minimum Distributions

The Internal Revenue Service today announced that anyone who already took a required minimum distribution (RMD) in 2020 from certain retirement accounts now have the opportunity to roll those funds back into a retirement account following the CARES Act RMD waiver for 2020.

The 60-day rollover period for any RMDs already taken this year has been extended to Aug. 31, 2020, to give taxpayers time to take advantage of this opportunity.

The CARES Act enabled any taxpayer with an RMD due in 2020 form a defined-contribution retirement plan, including a 401 (k) or 403(b) plan, or an IRA, to skip those RMD’s this year. This includes anyone who turned age 70 ½ in 2019 and would have had to take the first RMD by April 1, 2020. This waiver does not apply to defined benefit plans.

An IRA owner or beneficiary who has already received a distribution from an IRA of an amount that would have been an RMD in 2020 can repay the distribution to the IRA by Aug. 31, 2020. The repayment is not subject to the one rollover per 12-month period limitation and the restriction on rollovers for inherited IRAs.