Inherited IRA RMD calculator

Method and sources

Beneficiaries of owners who died in 2020 or later follow the SECURE Act rules. If you are more than 10 years younger than the owner and not a spouse, minor child, disabled or chronically ill, the account must be empty by December 31 of the tenth year after the death. When the owner had already reached their required beginning date, you also take a minimum every year before that: last year-end balance divided by the longer of your and the owner's remaining life expectancy from the IRS Single Life Table, each reduced by one per year. The IRS applies these yearly minimums from 2025; missed minimums for 2021–2024 are not penalized.

Each way of taking the money is run year by year: the withdrawal is taken at the start of the year, the rest grows at your return after inflation, and the federal tax it adds is the tax with the withdrawal minus the tax without it, on your other income, using the 2026 tables held constant. State tax is not included. Spouses, minor children, disabled or chronically ill beneficiaries, estates, trusts and after-tax basis (Form 8606) are not modeled. The planner does not model inherited IRAs.

Tables and sources

• 26 CFR §1.401(a)(9)-5 (4-1-25 edition)
  Distributions after the owner's death: applicable denominator after death on or after the required beginning date is the greater of the designated beneficiary's and the owner's remaining life expectancy, and annual distributions continue until the interest is fully distributed ((d)(1)(i)–(iii)); the owner's life expectancy starts from the owner's age in the year of death and the beneficiary's from their age in the year after, each reduced by one per later year ((d)(3)(ii)–(iii)); a designated beneficiary who is not an eligible designated beneficiary must finish by the end of the year containing the 10th anniversary of death ((e)(2)); (d)(3)(i): beneficiary and employee life expectancies use the Single Life Table in §1.401(a)(9)-9(b), which Table I reproduces · 2026 · www.govinfo.gov
• IRS Notice 2024-35
  §III: final regulations apply for determining RMDs for calendar years beginning on or after January 1, 2025; §IV.B–C: no excise tax asserted for a specified RMD not taken in 2024 (deaths 2020–2023 on or after the required beginning date); Notices 2022-53 and 2023-54 gave the same relief for 2021–2023 · 2026 · www.irs.gov
• IRS Publication 590-B (2025)
  IRA Beneficiaries: eligible designated beneficiaries; 10-year rule ("If the IRA owner dies before the required beginning date and the 10-year rule applies, no distribution is required for any year before the 10th year"); owner died before the required beginning date: an eligible designated beneficiary uses Table I from the year after death, reduced by one each year, unless electing the 10-year rule; Required beginning date: age 73 for 2023 and later, 72 for 2020–2022, 70½ for 2019 or earlier, by April 1 of the following year · 2026 · www.irs.gov
• IRS Publication 590-B (2025), chapter 2
  Roth IRAs, Distributions to beneficiaries: the entire interest must be distributed by the end of the 5th or 10th calendar year after the owner's death unless paid to an eligible designated beneficiary over their life expectancy; the owner of a Roth IRA has no required beginning date · 2026 · www.irs.gov
• IRS Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
  Appendix B, Table I (Single Life Expectancy, for use by beneficiaries); age 120 row applies at 120 and older · 2026 · www.irs.gov
• Rev. Proc. 2025-32
  §4.01 Tables 1 and 3; §4.14(1) and (3) · 2026 · www.irs.gov
• Schedule 1-A (Form 1040), Part V Enhanced Deduction for Seniors
  Schedule 1-A Part V; IRC §151(d)(5)(C), effective 2025–2028 · 2026 · www.irs.gov