What Hap­pens If You Miss Your RMD Dead­line
If the RMD amount is not dis­trib­uted by the dead­line, then the IRS assess­es a 50% excise tax on the amount not with­drawn. This is referred to as an excess-accu­mu­la­tion penal­ty. If you with­draw only a por­tion of the RMD amount, the penal­ty is assessed on the bal­ance. For exam­ple, say your cal­cu­lat­ed RMD amount for 2004 is $10,000 and you with­drew $5,000. You will be assessed a 50% excise tax on $5,000.

All Is Not Lost… Maybe
Should you find your­self in the unfor­tu­nate predica­ment of hav­ing to pay this excise tax due to an error, you may request a waiv­er from the IRS. Gen­er­al­ly, to con­sid­er the waiv­er, the IRS requires that you have tak­en or are tak­ing steps, such as tak­ing the RMD amount as soon as pos­si­ble, to cor­rect the error. You must pay the excise tax and then sub­mit a let­ter of expla­na­tion ask­ing for a waiv­er with your income tax return. The excise tax is report­ed on IRS Form 5329, which may be obtained at www.irs.gov. If your request is approved, the IRS will return the excise tax amount to you.