I agree.  The asset, in the dollar amount of the RMD, must come from a non-taxable retirement plan and go into a personal account where it is taxed as income for the Calander year of the RMD before December 31 and marked (by the Plan) as the distribution for that year.  The Plan then sends that information to the IRS as the RMD received for that year.

I also agree.

And there is the rub.  You don't know what the capital gains are going to be at any time during the year until they are paid.  So, you can't really know if you will be better off taking the RMD at any point during the year based on share price until the final capital gains are paid for the year.  That gives you a window of about 2 weeks to take the distribution.  That is cutting it close to not taking the RMD (IMO) for that year and I understand that there are substantial penalties if you don't take it.

I have 6 retirement plans in two institutions.  I do not take RMD's from each.  I calculate the value of all as a total on December 31 of the preceding year and take an RMD for the total from one of the plans.  I find that to be simpler than taking 6 RMD's for bookkeeping and tracking of the investments.

I think you have confirmed that it is best to wait for all capital gains to be paid to the plans before taking the RMD and not be so concerned with share price during the year.

Thank you.

 

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