Minimum distribution - year of death

[Guest Judy Z]

Feel like I should be able to find an answer to this but have spent sometime looking

Facts: The taxpayer dies in 1999 and has not taken the required minimum IRA distribution payable in 1999 before the DOD.

There are a number of IRAs. Four out of five IRAs - a daughter is the beneficiary. The fifth IRA - the spouse is the beneficiary. (reason - second marriage)

The spouse does not rollover the IRA into an account in her own name until calendar 2000. The required beginning date for the spouse's rollover IRA (assume the spouse is age 75) is December 31, 2001 (the year following the year the account was rolled over).

My question - is a beneficiary required to take the minimum distribution not taken by the IRA owner before Dec 31 in the year of death?

If so, is the distribution treated as taken by the IRA owner or by the beneficiary?

Under the above fact pattern, could distributions be taken from any one of the IRAs to fulfill the minimum distribution? Or would the IRA which designates the daughter as beneficiary be treated separately from the IRA which designates the spouse as beneficiary?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.