Can a retired person save on taxes by having stocks in an IRA account pay dividends into a taxable account?

Question

The reasoning would be the dividends would be taxed at 15%, while it would also count towards the mandatory withdrawls from an IRA account. The whole point would be to avoid having the dividends be paid into the IRA account and then be taxed at a higher rate if it is withdrawn later as part of the mandatory withdrawls.

Answer 1

There are a bunch of things mixed together in here.
Anything you take out of an IRA is taxed as ordinary income. The lower "qualified dividends" rate does not apply.
If you are currently taking mandatory withdrawals (RMD's), this would count as part of that, but if you are not yet required to take them, you can't "count" this against RMD's required to be taken later.
However, if you mean your future RMD's will put you in a higher tax bracket, then withdrawing some now, while in a lower bracket, could be beneficial.

Answer 2

No.

All earnings, whether capital gains, dividends, interest, or whatever, earned inside an IRA account are taxed as ordinary income when distributed.

Dividends from stocks in an IRA account aren't paid into the account, they are generated from the account.

Answer 3

No, this would still be considered a withdrawal from the IRA, so would be taxed as ordinary income.