Assuming the 5-Year rule, when can payments be modified?
A. In 1998, a tax court held that a payment received by a taxpayer after he received five equal annual installments and after he reached age 59-1/2 was a modification of the Substantially Equal Periodic Payments. The Court held that the modification occurred within the 5-year period beginning with the first payment, thus triggering the recapture of the 10-percent penalty tax. The Service argued that the 5-year period began with the first distribution and ran until the end of the 5th year. The tax court agreed – the 5-year period closes at the end of the 5 years beginning with the first distribution, and does not end on the date of the 5th annual distribution. Arnold v. Comm., 111 TC No. 12 (1998).
