Tag: IRAs

Starting this year, the IRS requires holders to deduct the 10% federal tax from traditional IRAs prior to unclaimed property reporting. NAUPA recommends using the TW “Income Tax Withheld” standard deduction code in this case. The value of the property before the deduction should be put in the PROP-AMOUNT-REPORTED field, and the amount after the 10% deduction goes in PROP-AMOUNT-REMITTED.

The majority of states I have contacted have confirmed that they are following the NAUPA guidance, but I have run into a few exceptions, notably Colorado, which currently does not support the use of TW. Colorado asks that holders report and remit the post-deduction amount, without mentioning the federal tax withholding at all. We also have discovered that Mississippi’s system does not recognize TW, and instead requests that the SW deduction code be used instead.

Our software will be updated to create the NAUPA file according to the individual state requirements as more information comes in.

Tax-deferred savings accounts such as IRAs are different than most other forms of unclaimed property because their raison d’être is to be saved for decades, until the owner is ready to retire. For this reason almost all jurisdictions have laws requiring that retirement accounts not be reported until the owner has reached the age at which distributions are required to avoid a tax penalty. For a traditional IRA, the IRS has set this age at seventy and a half. (The April 1st following the year the owner reaches age seventy and a half, to be precise.)

Except for Pennsylvania.

In 2016, Pennsylvania adopted a new unclaimed property law that, to the confusion of all, neglected to include any mention of the seventy-and-a-half rule. As written, the law treats retirement accounts the same way it treats any other piece of unclaimed property—if the holder hasn’t had contact with the owner for three years, the holder must report that property to the state.