Treas. Reg. § 1.401(a)(9)-5

(i) In general. A calendar year for which a minimum distribution is required is a distribution calendar year.

(ii) First distribution calendar year for employee if employee dies on or after required beginning date. If an employee's required beginning date is April 1 of the calendar year following the calendar year in which the employee attains the applicable age, then the employee's first distribution calendar year is the year the employee attains the applicable age. If an employee's required beginning date is April 1 of the calendar year following the calendar year in which the employee retires, the employee's first distribution calendar year is the calendar year in which the employee retires.

(iii) First distribution calendar year for designated beneficiary if employee dies before required beginning date. In the case of an employee who dies before the required beginning date, if the life expectancy rule in § 1.401(a)(9)-3(c)(4) applies, then the first distribution calendar year for the designated beneficiary is the calendar year following the calendar year in which the employee died (or, if applicable, the calendar year described in § 1.401(a)(9)-3(d)). See § 1.401(a)(9)-3(c)(5) to determine whether the life expectancy rule applies.

(i) With respect to the retirement benefits provided by that account balance, to the extent the incidental benefit requirement of § 1.401-1(b)(1)(i) requires distributions, that requirement is deemed satisfied; and

(ii) No additional distributions are required to satisfy section 401(a)(9)(G).

(i) Purchase of annuity contract permitted. A plan may satisfy section 401(a)(9) by the purchase of an annuity contract from an insurance company in accordance with § 1.401(a)(9)-6(d) with the employee's entire individual account, provided that the terms of the annuity satisfy § 1.401(a)(9)-6. However, a distribution of an annuity contract is not a distribution for purposes of this section.

(ii) Transition from defined contribution rules to defined benefit rules. If an annuity is purchased in accordance with paragraph (a)(5)(i) of this section after distributions are required to commence (the required beginning date, in the case of distributions commencing before death, or the calendar year determined under § 1.401(a)(9)-3(c)(4) or, if applicable, § 1.401(a)(9)-3(d), in the case of distributions commencing after death), then the plan will satisfy section 401(a)(9) only if, in the year of purchase, distributions from the individual account satisfy this section, and for calendar years following the year of purchase, payments under the annuity contract are made in accordance with § 1.401(a)(9)-6. Payments under the annuity contract during the year in which the annuity contract is purchased are treated as distributions from the individual account for purposes of determining whether the distributions from the individual account satisfy this section in the calendar year of purchase.

(iii) Bifurcation if annuity contract is purchased with portion of employee's account. A portion of an employee's account balance under a defined contribution plan is permitted to be used to purchase an annuity contract while another portion remains in the account, provided that the requirements of paragraphs (a)(5)(i) and (ii) of this section are satisfied (other than the requirement that the contract be purchased with the employee's entire individual account). In that case, in order to satisfy section 401(a)(9) for calendar years after the calendar year of purchase, the remaining account balance under the plan must be distributed in accordance with this section.

(iv) Optional aggregation rule. In the case of an annuity contract purchased with a portion of the employee's account balance, in lieu of applying section 401(a)(9) separately with respect to the annuity contract and the remaining account balance as described in paragraph (a)(5)(iii) of this section, a plan may permit an employee to elect to satisfy section 401(a)(9) for the annuity contract and that account balance in the aggregate by—

(v) [Reserved]

(i) Subsequent allocations. The account balance is increased by the amount of any contributions or forfeitures allocated to the account balance as of dates in the valuation calendar year after the valuation date. For this purpose, contributions that are allocated to the account balance as of dates in the valuation calendar year after the valuation date, but that are not actually made during the valuation calendar year, may be excluded.

(ii) Subsequent distributions. The account balance is decreased by distributions made in the valuation calendar year after the valuation date.

(i) Determination of applicable denominator. If the employee's surviving spouse who is more than 10 years younger than the employee is the employee's sole beneficiary, then the applicable denominator is the joint and last survivor life expectancy for the employee and spouse determined using the Joint and Last Survivor Table in § 1.401(a)(9)-9(d) for the employee's and spouse's ages as of their birthdays in the relevant distribution calendar year (rather than the applicable denominator determined under paragraph (c)(1) of this section).

(ii) Spouse must be sole beneficiary at all times. Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (c)(2)(iii) of this section (relating to a death or divorce in a calendar year), the spouse is the sole beneficiary for purposes of determining the applicable denominator for a distribution calendar year during the employee's lifetime only if the spouse is the sole beneficiary of the employee's entire interest at all times during the distribution calendar year.

(iii) Change in marital status. If the employee and the employee's spouse are married on January 1 of a distribution calendar year, but do not remain married throughout that year (that is, the employee or the employee's spouse dies or they become divorced during that year), the employee will not fail to have a spouse as the employee's sole beneficiary for that year merely because they are not married throughout that year. However, the change in beneficiary due to the death or divorce of the spouse in a distribution calendar year will be effective for purposes of determining the applicable denominator under section 401(a)(9) and this paragraph (c) for the following calendar years.

(i) In general. If an employee dies after distribution has begun as determined under § 1.401(a)(9)-2(a)(3) (generally, on or after the employee's required beginning date), distributions must satisfy section 401(a)(9)(B)(i). In order to satisfy this requirement, the applicable denominator for distribution calendar years that begin after the employee's death is determined under the rules of this paragraph (d)(1) (or is determined under the rules of paragraph (g)(3) of this section, if applicable). The requirement to take an annual distribution in accordance with the preceding sentence continues to apply for every distribution calendar year until the employee's interest is fully distributed. Thus, a required minimum distribution is due for the calendar year of the beneficiary's death, and that amount must be distributed during that calendar year to any beneficiary of the deceased beneficiary to the extent it has not already been distributed to the deceased beneficiary. If section 401(a)(9)(H) applies to the employee's interest in the plan, then the distributions also must satisfy either section 401(a)(9)(B)(ii) (applied by substituting 10 years for 5 years) or, if the beneficiary is an eligible designated beneficiary, section 401(a)(9)(B)(iii) (taking into account sections 401(a)(9)(E)(iii) and 401(a)(9)(H)(iii)). In order to satisfy those requirements, in addition to determining the applicable denominator under the rules of this paragraph (d)(1), the distributions must satisfy any applicable requirements under paragraph (e) of this section.

(ii) Employee with designated beneficiary. If the employee has a designated beneficiary as of the date determined under § 1.401(a)(9)-4(c), the applicable denominator is the greater of—

(iii) Employee with no designated beneficiary. If the employee does not have a designated beneficiary as of the date determined under § 1.401(a)(9)-4(c), the applicable denominator is the employee's remaining life expectancy.

(i) Life expectancy table. For purposes of this paragraph (d), all life expectancies are determined using the Single Life Table in § 1.401(a)(9)-9(b).

(ii) Employee's life expectancy. The employee's remaining life expectancy is determined initially using the employee's age as of the employee's birthday in the calendar year of the employee's death. In subsequent calendar years, the remaining life expectancy is determined by reducing that initial life expectancy by one for each calendar year that has elapsed after that first calendar year.

(iii) Non-spouse designated beneficiary. If the designated beneficiary is not the employee's surviving spouse, then the designated beneficiary's remaining life expectancy is determined initially using the beneficiary's age as of the beneficiary's birthday in the calendar year following the calendar year of the employee's death. Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (d)(3)(iv) of this section, for subsequent calendar years, the designated beneficiary's remaining life expectancy is determined by reducing that initial life expectancy by one for each calendar year that has elapsed after that first calendar year.

(iv) Spouse as designated beneficiary. If the surviving spouse of the employee is the employee's sole beneficiary, then the surviving spouse's remaining life expectancy is redetermined each distribution calendar year up to and including the calendar year of the spouse's death using the surviving spouse's age as of the surviving spouse's birthday in the distribution calendar year. For each calendar year following the calendar year of the spouse's death, the spouse's remaining life expectancy is determined by reducing the spouse's remaining life expectancy in the calendar year of the spouse's death by one for each calendar year that has elapsed after that calendar year.

(i) General rule. Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (f)(1)(ii) of this section and § 1.401(a)(9)-8(a), if the employee has more than one designated beneficiary, then the determination of the applicable denominator under paragraph (d) of this section is made using the oldest designated beneficiary of the employee.

(ii) Applicable multi-beneficiary trusts. If an employee's beneficiary is an applicable multi-beneficiary trust described in § 1.401(a)(9)-4(g)(1), then only the trust beneficiaries described in § 1.401(a)(9)-4(g)(1)(ii) are taken into account in determining the oldest designated beneficiary for purposes of paragraph (f)(1)(i) of this section.

(i) General rule. Except as otherwise provided in paragraphs (f)(2)(ii) and (iii) of this section and § 1.401(a)(9)-8(a), if an employee has more than one designated beneficiary, then paragraph (e)(1) of this section is applied with respect to the oldest of the employee's designated beneficiaries.

(ii) Special rule for employee's minor child. If any of the employee's designated beneficiaries is an eligible designated beneficiary because that designated beneficiary is described in § 1.401(a)(9)-4(e)(1)(ii) (relating to the child of the employee who has not reached the age of majority at the time of the employee's death), then—

(iii) Applicable multi-beneficiary trust. If an employee's beneficiary is an applicable multi-beneficiary trust described in § 1.401(a)(9)-4(g)(1), then paragraph (e)(3) of this section applies as if the death of the employee's eligible designated beneficiary does not occur until the death of the last to survive of the trust beneficiaries who are described in § 1.401(a)(9)-4(g)(1)(ii).

(i) General rule. Except as provided in this paragraph (g)(2), all amounts distributed from an individual account under a defined contribution plan are distributions that are taken into account in determining whether this section is satisfied for a calendar year, regardless of whether the amount is includible in income. Thus, for example, amounts that are excluded from income as recovery of investment in the contract under section 72 generally are taken into account for purposes of determining whether this section is satisfied for a calendar year. Similarly, amounts excluded from income as net unrealized appreciation on employer securities generally are taken into account for purposes of satisfying this section.

(ii) Amounts not eligible for rollover. An amount is not taken into account in determining whether this section is satisfied for a calendar year if that amount is described in § 1.402(c)-2(c)(3) (relating to amounts that are not treated as eligible rollover distributions).

(iii) [Reserved]

(iv) [Reserved]

(i) In general. A defined contribution plan may include a provision, applicable to an employee whose sole beneficiary is that employee's surviving spouse, under which the surviving spouse may elect to be treated as the employee for purposes of determining the required minimum distribution for a calendar year under this section.

(ii) [Reserved]