Before the Supreme Court this term is the question of whether a beneficiary individual retirement account (an “Inherited IRA”) is exempt from a debtor’s bankruptcy estate under 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(C) and (d)(12)2 of the Bankruptcy Code. The issue turns on 1) whether the funds in an Inherited IRA are “retirement funds,” and 2) whether an Inherited IRA is considered tax exempt under the Internal Revenue Code (the “Tax Code”).
RELEVANT LAW -
The primary provision at issue in Clark v. Rameker, pending before the Supreme Court, is § 522(b)(3)(C), which provides for the following exemption of property from a debtor’s estate: “retirement funds to the extent that those funds are in a fund or account that is exempt from taxation under section 401, 403, 408, 408A, 414, 457, or 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.” The relevant provision under the Tax Code is § 408(e), which provides that “[a]ny individual retirement account is exempt from taxation under this subtitle.”
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