And by the way....there is another way to take mandatory distributions. I am supplying the idea hoping that it does not create confusion. If so, forget it.
In general, you want to take the amount the brokerage says to take. MATCH that number, don’t overthink it, and remember to add that money to your Mom’s gross income. End of story.
But if your Mom has a stock account INSIDE her IRA and a “street” account OUTSIDE her IRA....the brokerage can simply move stock shares from INSIDE the IRA to OUTSIDE the IRA. Without selling them. This is a bookkeeping matter on the part of your broker
This assumes she has shares and does not wish to sell them. When and if she does this, she will of course end up owing tax on the “income”, the value of the shs moved from inside the IRA to outside the IRA but because no sale occurred, she will NOT have the cash money (from the sale that never occurred) to pay the taxes. Again, if this is a problem, then forget it, direct your broker to move the cash amount from within the IRA (or, sell enough shares to produce that cash within the IRA) and send her a check.
Don’t overthink this. If the brokerage says you need to take a manda dist from the IRA for $1247.63, just get them to send the check and that’s that. Remember to add it into her income.
Thank you. My mom just has bank accts in her IRAs.