Do Roth 401(k) participants not get excused from before-death minimum distributions?

[Peter Gulia]

With a heading “Mandatory Distribution Rules Not to Apply Before Death”, Internal Revenue Code § 402A(d)(5), as SECURE 2022 adds it for tax years that begin on or after January 1, 2024 (with a transition for 2023 measures to be paid in 2024), provides:

Notwithstanding sections 403(b)(10) and 457(d)(2), the following provisions shall not apply to any designated Roth account:

(A) — Section 401(a)(9)(A).

(B) — The incidental death benefit requirements of section 401(a).

Am I reading correctly that only Roth 403(b) and Roth 457(b) participants are excused from minimum distribution before death?

Or is there another provision I didn’t read thoroughly enough to find?

[Lou S.]

I don't think that is correct. My understanding is that the ROTH 401(k) will not be subject to RMDs before death putting them on par with ROTH-IRA rules starting with the 2024 year.

Now it's possible this is another poor drafting in the Secure 2.0 that was being fixed in a technical correction but I'm pretty sure the intent was to get rid of the RMDs for ROTH money in qualified plans during the participant's lifetime.

[Peter Gulia]

Like you, I believe someone intended the relief for all three kinds of employment-based eligible retirement plans.

But I don't see any text in the statute that provides the nonapplication for a Roth 401(k) subaccount.

[Peter Gulia]

SECURE 2022 § 325 added only Internal Revenue Code § 402A(d)(5), quoted above.

Here are links to Bloomberg’s edition of the Internal Revenue Code, with SECURE 2022 amendments:

I.R.C. § 401 https://irc.bloombergtax.com/public/uscode/doc/irc/section_401;

I.R.C. § 402A https://irc.bloombergtax.com/public/uscode/doc/irc/section_402a.

I checked both these sections for references to “401(a)(9)(A)”, and founding nothing that undoes that minimum-distribution condition for Roth 401(k) participants.

I checked both these sections for references to SECURE 2022’s § 325, and found nothing that undoes that minimum-distribution condition for Roth 401(k) participants.

My searches in § 401 on “402A” and on “Roth” found nothing that undoes the § 401(a)(9)(A) minimum-distribution condition for Roth 401(k) participants.

I want to be wrong, so I need not over the next ten years convert my Roth 401(k) amounts into Roth IRA amounts.

[EBECatty]

Interesting. The only distinction I see is that 403(b)(10) and 457(d)(2) separately and affirmatively impose the 401(a)(9) rules on those plan types by reference, whereas 402A does not contain a separate provision affirmatively imposing the 401(a)(9) rules on designated Roth accounts. To the extent that 401(a)(9) applies to 402A Roth accounts, it's only because the "qualified Roth contribution program" rules apply to all "applicable retirements plans," which includes a 401(a)-qualified plan (and 403(b) and 457(b) plan) under 402A(e)(1).

In other words, if 402A itself had a provision like 403(b)(10) and 457(d)(2) that separately and affirmatively imposed the 401(a)(9) rules, perhaps the SECURE 2.0 provision would have also included a "notwithstanding" for that subsection too. As it reads now, though, the new provision exempts "any designated Roth account," which I think by definition should be read to include a Roth 401(k) subaccount. 

[Peter Gulia]

EBECatty, thank you for your clear-minded reading.

Yesterday, I was too dense to see it.