RMD Relief?

[austin3515]

An accountant called to tell me not to process his clients RMD yet, because he thought there might be relief on the RMD rules for 2008 -

Does anyone have any idea what he's read? It seems hard to believe that any relief would be in line for 2008, since so many RMD's have already been processed?

Perhaps the relief will be to allow them to adjustment for investment losses?

[Tom Poje]

talk is cheap. at this time there has been no relief provided. with only a month and a half to go (with Thanksgiving and Christmas squeezed in there) it is doubtful any such relief is forthcoming. I vaguely recall the topic being raised at the ASPPA conference and the answer being there was really little that could be done at this late date.

[masteff]

A quick news search does find a few current articles on the topic. It was covered by PBS' Nightly Business Report. Here's a basic AP article on it: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081106/401k_insight.html

I'll believe it when I see it.

However.... just because a law is passed that doesn't require the distribution for the year, it might not override a Plan's written document which might make an MRD unavoidable regardless of the change in legislation. What that would mean is the Plan might have to distribute an amount but the participant could very well be able to roll it over to an IRA.

[Appleby]

Wouldn’t it be safer to take the RMD, and if no RMD is required then rollover the amount within 60-days? The amount should be rollover if it is not an RMD, unless the relief comes with a clause that says”…but if you already withdrew your RMD amount, you are SOL”.