If your spouse is ten years your junior, you may want to double-check your tax preparer’s or financial advisor’s calculation when you are reviewing your annual RMD. If he or she is indeed ten years your junior, you are entitled to use IRC 590-B Table II[1] versus Table III and this would reduce your RMD and save you money.
For example, let’s say you are 72 years old and you are married to a 59 year-old. Let’s also say you have IRA’s worth in excess of $1,000,000 in 2019. Table II would allow you to use a factor of 27.7 which would result in you would withdrawing about $36,102. If you used Table III, the result would be that you are required to withdraw almost $3,000 more. In light of April 15 quickly approaching, you may want to check your old returns and see if your advisor(s) were doing their jobs correctly and used the correct IRS table when advising you on your annual RMD obligations.
[1] Required Minimum Distribution Worksheets, (n.d.), retrieved from https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/required-minimum-distribution-worksheets
