Life and Death Planning for Retirement Benefits

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Chapter 2: Income Tax Issues 117
Return of Basis = [Distribution Amount] X [The Fraction]
The Fraction is:
Total Nondeductible Contributions
[Year-End Account Balance + Distribution Amount + Outstanding Rollovers]
The following paragraphs explain the components of this formula and how it works.
B. Distribution Amount. The Distribution Amount figures into the formula twice, once as
part of the denominator of The Fraction and once as the multiplicand. Basically, the
Distribution Amount is the sum of all “countable” distributions the participant took from
any of his traditional IRAs during the calendar year, because all such distributions are
treated as one single giant distribution. Each distribution is valued as of the date it is
distributed. Any amount converted to a Roth IRA is treated as a distribution, and valued
for this purpose on the date it is distributed out of the traditional IRA Use IRS
Form 8606 and its instructions and related worksheets to compute the Distribution Amount;
here are some points to consider (including which distributions “don’t count”):
 Since all of the participant’s traditional IRAs are treated as a single account, make
sure you are looking at the right IRAs in figuring the Distribution Amount; see “F.”
 IRA distributions that were rolled over to another traditional IRA or traditional
QRP are NOT included in the Distribution Amount. IRA distributions that were
rolled to another traditional IRA don’t count because they will show up in the Year-
end Account Balance. IRA distributions that were rolled into a QRP don’t count
because such rollovers were deemed to come out of the pretax money in the account
first (se A)); accordingly, they simply reduce the pretax money in the IRA
without diminishing basis.
 There are other IRA distributions that are deemed to come “first” from the pretax
money in the participant’s aggregated IRAs; see B)–(D). In order for the
formula to work, these excepted distributions must be excluded from the
Distribution Amount. Notice 87-16 does not mention this exclusion, because these
exceptions did not exist in 1987, but the exclusion does appear on line 7 of IRS
Form 8606 (2009).
 Exclude any distribution that was rolled into a Roth IRA (conversion) during the
year, if that conversion amount is later recharacterize see “C.”
C. Year-end Account Balance. This is the total combined account balance of all of the
participant’s countable traditional IRAs (for countable and excluded accounts see “F”),
computed as of the end of the year in which the distribution occurs. Use
IRS Form 8606 and its instructions and related worksheets to compute the Year-end
Account Balance; here are some points to consider: