The SECURE Act ended the lifetime 'stretch' for most people who inherit an IRA, and the IRS's 2024 final regulations added a twist many beneficiaries didn't see coming: annual required distributions inside the 10-year window. This calculator tells you which rules apply to you and how to draw the account down without a tax surprise.
The 10-year rule — and the annual-RMD twist
If you're a designated non-spouse beneficiary, the SECURE Act generally requires you to empty an inherited IRA by December 31 of the tenth year after the owner's death. The confusing part is what happens inside those ten years. Under the IRS final regulations (effective 2025), if the original owner had already reached their required beginning date — the April 1 after they turned 73 — you must also take an annual RMD in years one through nine, based on your single-life expectancy. If the owner died before that age, no annual RMDs are required; you just have to empty the account by the deadline.
An inherited Roth is the clean case: because Roth owners never have lifetime RMDs, they're always treated as dying before their required beginning date. So an inherited Roth has no annual RMDs — only the 10-year deadline.
Who still gets to stretch
Five categories of 'eligible designated beneficiary' escape the 10-year rule and may still stretch distributions over their own life expectancy: a surviving spouse, a minor child of the owner, someone disabled, someone chronically ill, and anyone not more than ten years younger than the owner. A minor child is a hybrid — they stretch until age 21, then the 10-year clock starts.
Spouses have the most flexibility of all: rolling the account into your own IRA usually beats staying a beneficiary, because you then follow ordinary owner rules and don't take any RMD until you turn 73. An estate, most trusts, or a charity are not designated beneficiaries at all, and fall under either a 5-year rule or the deceased owner's remaining life expectancy.
Drawing it down without a tax spike
When you have flexibility, the timing of withdrawals is really a tax question. Deferring everything into a single year-10 lump means one enormous taxable distribution that can push a big slice of the money into a higher marginal bracket. Spreading roughly equal withdrawals across the whole window keeps your taxable income flatter and often costs less tax overall.
For older beneficiaries whose required distributions are already large, there's little room to smooth — the RMDs themselves set the pace. The one rule nobody should break is the deadline: a missed distribution carries a 25% excise tax, reduced to 10% if you correct it within two years. Because the outcome turns on your exact beneficiary type and the owner's RMD status, confirm your situation with a tax professional before acting.