12/19/2010 – with the passage of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, the provision for an IRA owner who is at least age 70½ to make a direct charitable contribution of up to $100,000 from his or her IRA has been extended through the end of 2011. Such a direct contribution can be used to satisfy the IRA owner’s Required Minimum Distribution.
See the article Charitable Contributions from Your IRA in 2010 and 2011 for more details.
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Hi Jim,
I read your IRA blog but i have a theoretical situation that does not seem to fit the norm and would appreciate any thoughts that you might be able to offer. Suppose there is a very large rollover IRA (in the millions) and the beneficiary designation leaves the on death proceeds to the owner’s on death irrevocalbe trust. the beneficiaries of the on death irrevocable trust are all qualified charities. So my question is, is there an income tax liability resulting from the distribution to the trust. The purpose of this arrangement is to avoid any estate taxes on this distribution. Alternatively, would the income tax issue be better avoided by naming the qualified charities as the IRA beneficiaries? Any thoughts you might have on this subject will be appreciated. Thanks.
malcolm –
In theory, my opinion is that there should be no tax consequence upon transfer of the IRA since the transfer to the trust is merely a change in ownership, the same as an individual receiving the IRA as an inheritance. The IRA will have to maintain the decedent’s name in the title to signify that it is an inherited IRA. Then as distributions are made to the qualified charities, again there is no tax consequence. Bear in mind that I am not an attorney, and as such I may have overlooked something with this opinion.
Since there is no life span of the beneficiary of the IRA (being a trust) and furthermore no life span for the beneficiaries of the trust (being charitable agencies), the entire IRA will have to be distributed within five years – but with no tax consequence this should not be an issue.
Hope this helps –
jb
nit: “O contrare, Mona Me” is all wrong. Should be “au contraire, mon ami” If you meant your version as a joke, sorry i missed that.
Thank you, d bright – you gave me a chuckle. That post has been published for 7 months and has just now caught someone. :-)
That particular malapropism is an old personal joke of mine… I appreciate your pointing out the error, but it was intentional.
jb