Leaderboard

nice, coherent article by Ashlea Ebeling in today's Wall Street Journal explaining the rules. So, if the original owner dies before RMD's kick in, the new rules don't apply, and the beneficiary can take the money out any time during the 10-year period.

Efiling is sent over the internet but I can still work on tax returns locally while the internet is being restored. If my tax software was cloud, I'd have to find something else to do.

It would pretty damn useless for me to have a forum just on my computer that no one else could access.

This very forum is "cloud", and publicly stored and searchable by anyone.

As a developer: It is always best, but sometimes difficult, to ask about all items used to create/manage your important processes. For instance, we use one third party vendor for certain things, but the software functions even if there were to be an issue with the third party (by design). Not one single customer has ever asked! I also choose vendors who are like me, personal, and not usually the biggest player with the biggest target on them. Nothing wrong with remote storage of data as long as there are options for local use as well. Hardware and software not at your location is another story. One must consider outage and even instant end of life for all such things, and how to recover. A good example is charge card processing. I keep three methods somewhat ready. My main, which has actually never been down for any significant time in 40 years, and two others which I can get going within a day. None if this is new, and if shocking, it is a personal failure to plan. No different than having more than one bank account and more than one charge card, because they do have issues (such as this issue) from time to time. Note for the OP, the software (CrowdStrike's Falcon) is not used "by" Windows, it is software which was made for Windows machines, installed and used by the person/company (not Microsoft). One must always consider issues, such as asking if their tax preparer/accountant/doctor/etc. is using a current version of Windows, kept current, with limited access.

Copied from IR 2024 - 190: "Specifically, Treasury and IRS reviewed comments suggesting that a beneficiary of an individual who has started required annual distributions should not be required to continue those annual distributions if the remaining account balance is fully distributed within 10 years of the individual’s death as required by the SECURE Act. However, Treasury and IRS determined that the final regulations should retain the provision in the proposed regulations requiring such a beneficiary to continue receiving annual payments." Well this issue is finally cleared up