6 New IRS Guidelines Advisors Should Know

The Internal Revenue Service has been busy releasing guidance this year on everything from reporting virtual currencies to how to handle assets in an irrevocable trust to health savings accounts. Jeff Levine, Kitces.com's lead financial planning nerd and Buckingham Wealth Partners' chief planning officer, declared in a tweet that the most recent guidance regarding required minimum distributions from inherited IRAs answered the No. 1 question on many advisors' minds. However, advisors may be waiting a while for the IRS to release final regulations clarifying its stance on how to handle RMDs under the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (Secure) Act of 2019, according to Ed Slott of Ed Slott & Co. The law requires inherited IRAs to be emptied in 10 years for most beneficiaries. The IRS has said, in proposed regs, that beneficiaries must take RMDs in years 1 through 9 instead of waiting until year 10, causing widespread confusion among IRA beneficiaries and their advisors, leading many to argue that this was not Congress' intent. See the gallery for six guidelines the agency has issued so far this year.