Followup on estate/inheritance tax on IRA's

[moemabel]

What is the name of your state?Pennsylvania

Need to clarify responses I have received so far. One response indicated that only spousal beneficiaries of IRA's will not be part of the taxable estate and the probate estate. The other response seem to indicate that if an IRA didn't have a named beneficiary, it would be part of the taxable estate. Let me go over the details again.

Father of my best friend died with father's IRA going to spouse as named beneficiary. Mother died 5 years later. My understanding is that her IRA with children as beneficiary did not get included in her taxable estate but her husband's IRA that she owned did get included in her taxable estate. The father's IRA's beneficiary was not changed to reflect new beneficiaries.

Question: Is the rule that only spousal beneficiaries receive non-estate/inheritance taxable status? Is it true it doesn't matter if the children were named beneficiaries of either the mother's IRA or the father's IRA, changed to reflect new beneficiaries after the father died? Why would the mother's IRA with children as beneficiaries not be included in taxable estate? Did the lawyers/accountants make a mistake?

Could you please cite a tax code reference to the response?

Thank you very much!!!
moemabel

[Snipes5]

How many times do we have to answer this question?

The father's IRA passed directly to the mother, and was retained as a Spousal IRA.

If she did not rename the beneficiaries, it becomes part of HER estate because there were no beneficiaries THAT SHE NAMED. It doesn't matter what the father had done because THAT inheritance had already passed to the mother.

The Mother's IRA passed directly to named beneficiaries outside the estate because it was her IRA and she named the beneficiaries.

If you still don't get it, ask an attorney.

Distribution rules give me a migraine too.

Snipes