Pensions provide regular, predetermined payments after retirement from work, while annuities provide periodic, variable or fixed payments throughout your lifetime based on factors like your age and life expectancy. When purchasing tax qualified annuities early (prior to age 59 1/2) any withdrawal may incur an additional 10% federal income tax penalty; however, with careful structuring this can be avoided altogether.
Calculating the tax-free portion of an annuity distribution requires using both its accounting method and the General Rule. You can find this information in your contract’s specifications page, disclosure statement or product brochure. An annuity’s accounting method could include either simplified methods (simplified, modified simplified or standard), with modified standard methods being an alternative choice – for simplified methods you must fulfill all conditions listed below to be eligible to use this approach:
To identify tax-free investment earnings, the annuity accounting method allows you to calculate its cost and number of years it pays out payments. Once this amount has been calculated, use the General Rule to allocate it between taxable and tax-free portions; or for an alternative simplified method meet all conditions below.
If your annuity pays out to just one individual, use Table 1 at the bottom of Worksheet A to complete line 3 on this year’s worksheet. Otherwise, use the numbers on line 3 of your worksheet as markers of their ages at their start dates for their payout date.
Assume Ann Brown purchased a $50,000 annuity through her retirement plan prior to its starting date, with payments determined based on her life expectancy and mortality tables used by an insurance company. Because Ann’s annuity contract provided her a nonforfeitable right to at least 5 years of payments (per the General Rule), $5,000 of Ann’s distribution would be tax free according to this scenario.
If you use an annuity that qualifies as tax qualified in order to fund an IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA or retirement plan account, the Internal Revenue Code mandates that minimum distributions be taken when you reach age 73 (74 in 2029 and 75 thereafter). A Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract (QLAC), however, allows you to delay minimum withdrawals until age 85 while providing tailored benefits that satisfy IRS rules.