Page 20 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, AugusT 30, 2024 Beacon Hill Roll Call By Bob Katzen GET A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO MASSTERLIST – Join more than 22,000 people, from movers and shakers to political junkies and interested citizens, who start their weekday morning with MASSterList—the popular newsletter that chronicles news and informed analysis about what’s going on up on Beacon Hill, in Massachusetts politics, policy, media and influence. The stories are drawn from major news organizations as well as specialized publications. MASSterlist will be e-mailed to you FREE every Monday through Friday morning and will give you a leg up on what’s happening in the blood sport of Bay State politics. For more information and to get your free subscription, go to: https://massterlist.com/subscribe/ THE HOUSE AND SENATE: Beacon Hill Roll Call records local representatives’ votes on roll calls from recent sessions. There were no roll calls in the House or Senate last week. $650,000 FOR MICROLOANS TO BUSINESSES (H 4800) House 155-2, overrode Gov. Healey’s veto of $650,000 (reducing funding from $1.5 million to $850,000) for loans to small businesses. The Senate did not act on the veto so the veto stands and the $650,000 was eliminated. “I am reducing this item to the amount projected to be necessary due to the availability of alternative resources,” said Gov. Healey in her veto message. “This operating funding overlaps with alternative capital funding in the fiscal year 2025 Capital Investment Plan intended to support this purpose. Specifically, capital grants for Community Development Financial Institutions will be utilized to complement this funding in support of small businesses and microbusinesses.” (A “Yes” vote is for the $650,000. A “No” vote is against it.) Rep. Joseph McGonagle Yes $7.5 MILLION FOR PROGRAMS TO ENCOURAGE STATE COLLEGE GRADUATES TO BECOME PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS (H 4800) House 134-24, overrode Gov. Healey’s veto of $7.5 million (reducing funding from $10 million to $2.5 million) for programs to encourage graduates of the state’s public colleges to work as public school teachers. The Senate did not act on the veto so the veto stands and the $7.5 million was eliminated. “I am reducing this item to the amount projected to be necessary,” said Gov. Healey in her veto message. “The amount as adjusted here, in combination with the available balance from fiscal year 2024, is sufficient to meet projected demand and result in no reduction to fiscal year 2025 spending for this item.” (A “Yes” vote is for the $7.5 million. A “No” vote is against it.) Rep. Joseph McGonagle Yes $875,000 FOR COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS PROGRAM (H 4800) House 154-4, overrode Gov. Healey’s veto of the entire $875,000 for a statewide college and career readiness program implemented by JFYNetWorks, a nonprofit corporation, to provide online instructional curricula to help students meet the Massachusetts state standards at each grade level and reduce learning loss and achievement gaps. The program would also prepare students for required assessments and college placement tests in middle school and high school. The Senate did not act on the veto so the veto stands and the $875,000 was eliminated. “I am vetoing this item because it is not consistent with my House [budget] recommendation,” said Gov. Healey in her veto message. (A “Yes” vote is for the $875,000. A “No” vote is against it.) Rep. Joseph McGonagle Yes ALSO UP ON BEACON HILL MATERNAL HEALTH (H 4999) – Gov. Healey signed into law a maternal health bill that would require certified professional midwives and lactation consultants to be licensed; encourage the creation of more freestanding birth centers; establish a grant program to address maternal mental health and substance use disorder; expand the statewide universal postpartum home visiting program; and mandate that insurers provide coverage for postpartum depression and major depressive disorder screenings for perinatal individuals. “Massachusetts is home to the best health care, but there was work to be done to improve birth options and health equity for families across the state,” said Gov. Healey. “These important expansions in the law will help make it both safer and easier to start and grow a family here in Massachusetts, while making sure that women can make the best health care decisions for themselves.” “Massachusetts is renowned for its world-class hospitals and health care facilities, and this BEACON | SEE PAGE 21 Inherited Ira Required Minimum Distributions T he IRS recently finalized its regulations on inherited IRA Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) in July of this year. This area of the tax law has become more and more complicated. The Secure Act involved major tax legislation relating to RMDs when dealing with beneficiaries other than spouses, minor children, beneficiaries less than 10 years younger than the decedent IRA owner and disabled or chronically ill beneficiaries, who are referred to as eligible beneficiaries. The other group of beneficiaries is referred to as ineligible designated beneficiaries (i.e. the non-spouse, et al beneficiaries). An example would be your child. Under the old rule, a child could stretch out the RMDs over his or her life expectancy. This would allow for great tax efficiency as the distributions could be stretched out over 20, 30 or even 40 years. Under the Secure Act, your child is required to deplete the IRA account within 10 years following the year of your death. This is a massive change in tax law. The new regulations now make it clear that if you reached your Required Beginning Date (RBD) at the time of your death, meaning you had already reached the age where you are required to begin taking your RMDs, your child would not only be required to deplete the account by the end of the 10th year following your death, your child would also have to begin taking annual distributions from this IRA account in years 1 through 9, with RMD calculations based upon his or her own life expectancy. This was unclear in the IRS’ previously proposed regulations. In the event you had not reached your RBD and were not required to begin taking your RMDs, your child would not have to take any distributions during years 1 through 9. However, the entire IRA account would have to be completely depleted by the end of the 10th year following the year of your death. It should be noted, that depending on one’s tax position, it may very well be beneficial to actually withdraw funds from the IRA account ratably over that 10 year period to reduce Uncle Sam’s tax bite allowing you to remain in a lower federal tax bracket. The IRS has waived RMDs with respect to inherited IRA’s for calendar years 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. However, the RMDs must commence in calendar year 2025. If you inherited an IRA from someone who died in 2020, the account would still have to be depleted by the end of 2030, notwithstanding the fact that RMDs are not required to be taken until 2025. This rule would not apply to surviving spouses and other eligible beneficiaries. These rules are complicated to say the least. There are different rules applying to estates and conduit Trusts that have been named beneficiaries of IRA accounts. Joseph D. Cataldo is an estate planning/elder law attorney, Certified Public Accountant, Certified Financial Planner, AICPA Personal Financial Specialist and holds a masters degree in taxation. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK ADVOCATE NEWSPAPER FACEBOOK.COM/ ADVOCATE.NEWS.MA
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