In fact, there is no legal requirement to take a distribution.
A gift from a tax-deferred account is not deductible, he said, but a direct transfer — as opposed to taking a distribution and donating it — will not raise adjusted gross income.
TAKE A DISTRIBUTION FIRST If you are required to take distributions because of your age, take the payout for 2010 before converting the entire I.R.A. to a Roth, said Natalie B. Choate, a Boston lawyer and author of "Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits" (2006, Ataxplan Publications).
You may feel you are being extravagant if you need to take a distribution from your investments to pay for a vacation, new clothes or even to pay an electricity bill.
— prints and advertising — "than he should have, and he called me and said, 'I'm not gonna take a distribution fee because I don't think I did you right.' So, for whatever anybody's ever told me about how tough Harvey is, he's been ridiculously fair with me".
If you are required to take a distribution in 2011, pay attention to which part of your portfolio it comes out of, advises Picker.
His films also bring money in for Lionsgate, which releases all of his movies and takes a distribution fee off the top.
Likewise, you may roll your vested 401(k) or any other qualified plan assets into an IRA and take a distribution without an early withdrawal penalty if you are permanently disabled before you reach retirement age.
LarryG, a 78-year-old retired physician who didn't need a distribution in 2009 to pay his living expenses wondered if he should take a distribution and put it in his taxable account.
Take a distribution from a traditional IRA before age 591⁄2 and, unless a narrow exception applies, you could owe a 10% penalty in addition to ordinary tax on the withdrawal.
