Tax Tip: IRA required minimum distributions

If you will be age 70½ or older by the end of 2015, you must withdraw a minimum amount — a required minimum distribution — from your traditional, Simplified Employee Pension or Savings Incentive Match Plans for Employees IRAs for 2015. Withdrawals are not required from Roth IRAs until after the owner’s death.

RMD deadline
You must take your 2015 RMD by Dec. 31, 2015. If you reached 70½ years of age in 2015, you can delay taking your first RMD for 2015 until April 1, 2016. However, you must also take your subsequent RMD for 2016 by Dec. 31, 2016.

RMD amount
Your 2015 RMD is your account balance at the end of 2014 divided by a distribution period from the IRS’s Uniform Lifetime Table. The Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy Table is used if your spouse is your sole beneficiary and is 10 or more years younger than you. You can use these worksheets to calculate your RMDs.

Failure to take full amount of an RMD
If you fail to take the full amount of your RMD (you can always withdraw more than the required amount), you may have to pay a 50 percent additional tax on the amount not distributed as required. However, you can request that the additional tax be waived.

• To report the additional tax, you have to file Form 5329, Additional Taxes on Qualified Plans (Including IRAs) and Other Tax-Favored Accounts.

• See the Form 5329 instructions for additional information about this tax, including how to request a waiver of the tax.