It has been more than 3 weeks since I posted anything.  Not that news worthy of posting about is scarce, but few other reasons.  The 2008 official Federal and States Income Tax was 10/15, and since I am a tax professional, I had to take a week long vacation to recover.

Now, expect me to post again during the next few days about the latest and greatest personal financial and tax updates....

The Tax Chick

IRA Required Minimum Distributions NOT REQUIRED for 2009

In light of the turbulent stock market and its impact on most baby boomers's retirement accounts, the IRS announced that individuals are not required to take out their IRA Required Minimum Distributions in 2009.

The announcement came after some individuals had already taken out their distributions for the year, so in order to provide these individuals with the same benefits.  The IRS announced in Notice 2009-82
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-09-82.pdf relief for these individuals.  The 2009 IRA RMD distributed can be rolled over to an IRA or even a Roth IRA as long as it meets these requirements:

Individuals have until Novermber 30, 2009 or 60 days from the date of the distributions from the IRA, whichever date comes later. 

Also qualified plan participants and beneficiaries have the same RMD waiver as with IRA's, so these plans can adopt amendments to allow for the suspension of the 2009 RMD distributions if elected.

Please note that the IRS did not waive the one-rollover-per year rule.  As a result, some taxpayers and clients might not qualify for this rule assuming they had a rollover during the year. 
The one rollover per year rule by the way doesn't apply to ROTH IRA conversions.  So since you have already taken out the distribution and will pay the tax on it, why not roll it over into a ROTH IRA in 2009. 
Next year you can convert more of your retirement account into the Roth and hopefully take advantage of this great vehicle...