And the IRS lets you assume a longer life expectancy, so you can draw less from your account and leave more behind for heirs. Still, don't assume this new era of simplicity and flexibility means you can put the whole matter of retirement account distributions on autopilot. The key is still planning. The whole idea behind forced distributions is that the government can start collecting taxes on the money that has been accumulated. Roth IRAs are exempt from this because taxes already have been paid on the contributions.
Taxpayers can use the new rules immediately for IRAs.
Under the new rules, the IRS has added years to your life expectancy. When the IRS computes life expectancies, it uses the account owner's real age but assumes that the beneficiary is 10 years younger than the account owner. The old system was less generous because it used the beneficiary's real age. If your beneficiary is more than 10 years your junior, you can still use his or her real age. But to get this break, the beneficiary must be your spouse.