In Notice 2023-54, IRS Extends Effective Date to "no earlier than 2024" for Final RMD Regulations

On July 14, 2023, the IRS released Notice 2023-54: Transition Relief and Guidance Relating to Certain Required Minimum Distributions (the Notice).

Section III of the Notice extends the applicability date of the final regulations regarding RMDs to no earlier than 2024:

III. APPLICABILITY DATE OF FINAL REGULATIONS

  Final regulations regarding RMDs under § 401(a)(9) and related provisions will apply for calendar years beginning no earlier than 2024.

The explanation for this rule is in Section II(G) of the Notice:

II. BACKGROUND

  . . .

  G. Comments received by the Treasury Department and the IRS

  The Treasury Department and the IRS provided a 90-day comment period for the proposed regulations. Some individuals who are owners of inherited IRAs or are beneficiaries under defined contribution plans submitted comments indicating that they thought the new 10-year rule would apply differently than it would under the proposed regulations. Specifically, these commenters expected that, regardless of when an employee died, the 10-year rule would operate like the 5-year rule, such that there would not be any RMD due for a calendar year until the last year of the 5- or 10-year period following the specified event (the death of the employee, the death of the eligible designated beneficiary, or the attainment of the age of majority for the employee’s child who is an eligible designated beneficiary). Commenters who are heirs or beneficiaries of individuals who died in 2020 explained that they did not take an RMD in 2021 and were unsure of whether they would be required to take an RMD in 2022. Commenters asserted that, if final regulations adopt the interpretation of the 10-year rule set forth in the proposed regulations, the Treasury Department and the IRS should provide transition relief for failure to take distributions that are RMDs due in 2021 or 2022 pursuant to § 401(a)(9)(H) in the case of the death of an employee (or designated beneficiary) in 2020 or 2021.

  In response to the comments received on the proposed regulations, the Treasury Department and the IRS issued Notice 2022-53, 2022-45 IRB 437. Notice 2022-53 announced that the final regulations will apply no earlier than the 2023 distribution calendar year and provided guidance regarding certain amounts that were not paid in 2021 or 2022. Specifically, Notice 2022-53 provided that a defined contribution plan will not fail to be qualified for failing to make a specified RMD (as defined in that notice) in 2021 or 2022 and the taxpayer who did not take a specified RMD will not be subject to the excise tax under § 4974 for failing to take the specified RMD.