Spouses IRA Election

[Guest reg_h2b]

Sps election to treat a decedent's IRA as inherited or as sps' own IRA is irrevocable and must be made by year following date of death (assuming sps rbd is not later).

So if sps elects to treat IRA as inherited there is no way to do a sps rollover from that account.

Is this true?

[BPickerCPA]

I disagree with the above.

It's possible for there to be a DEEMED election under certain circumstances but there technically is no deadline for making the election or doing a rollover. For example, if the decedent was 55 and the wife was the same age, she can sit with the IRA and not do anything, and later elect to treat it as her own.

[Guest reg_h2b]

I agree with your counter example...but due to the way the question was worded I'm not sure you got my intent. Can a sps rollover an inherited IRA? For example,

Decedent dies in 1999. Assume decedent would have been 70.5 in 2000. Sps bene on IRA. If sps elects to inherit the sps' share and NOT treat it as sps's IRA-- by taking out a MRD distribution on the deadline for such election 12/31/2000 based on 401(a)(9)(B)(iv)-- (or for whatever reason is deemed to have elected to inherit IRA) is that election irrevocable such that she can not rollover that IRA in the future?

I thought the "inherited" election was irrevocable.

[BPickerCPA]

If account holder dies in 1999 and would have been 70½ in 2000, the fact that spouse takes a distribution in 2000 is not by itself considered an "election" to be a beneficiary. After all, if spouse is over 59½, she can take a distribution with no consequence.

My recollection is that there is some IRS ruling that once you've treated the IRA as a beneficiary you cannot roll it over. I'm not sure how valid that ruling is now.

But the circumstance of that ruling was that the spouse was under 59½ so that being a beneficiary was the only way to avoid the 10% penalty.

But there is no deadline, per se.