Inherited IRA 10-Year Rule Calculator

Scope and authority. This illustration applies published 2026 rules to one original owner's IRA and one living beneficiary. It covers deaths in 2020–2026 and holds those rules fixed for later distribution-year illustrations; it is not a forecast of future law. IRC §401(a)(9)(B), (E) and (H), applied to IRAs through §408(a)(6), distinguish designated beneficiaries, eligible designated beneficiaries (EDBs) and the 10-year rule. T.D. 10001, 89 FR 58886 (July 19, 2024) supplies the final regulations, effective September 17, 2024 and generally applicable to distribution calendar years beginning in 2025. IRS Publication 590-B, beneficiaries and Appendix B Table I supplies the published distribution guidance and full Single Life Expectancy table.

Required beginning date (RBD). For this IRA model, RBD is April 1 of the year after the owner reaches the applicable age: born on or before June 30, 1949 → 70½; July 1, 1949 through 1950 → 72; 1951–1959 → 73; 1960 or later → 75. See §401(a)(9)(C), SECURE 2.0 §107 and Treas. Reg. §1.401(a)(9)-2(b)(2). The half-year step crosses the calendar year for July–December birthdays: July 1, 1948 → April 1, 2020 RBD. January 1, 1960 → April 1, 2036. Death on the RBD counts as on/after RBD. An IRA has no still-working RBD extension. A Roth owner is treated as dying before RBD, but the beneficiary is not exempt from applicable distribution rules.

10-year and 5-year regimes. A non-EDB whose owner died before RBD has no annual RMD in years 1–9 and must empty the account by December 31 of year 10. If the owner died on/after RBD, annual life-expectancy RMDs apply in years 1–9 as well as full emptying in year 10. Notice 2024-35, following Notices 2022-53 and 2023-54, provides relief for specified annual distributions in 2021–2024; it does not reset the life-expectancy base or extend the 10-year deadline. Required annual distributions resume in 2025. An estate with no designated beneficiary uses the 5-year rule before RBD (no annual installment until final emptying) or the owner's remaining life expectancy after RBD. The final emptying year always requires a distribution. An overdue year retains the original deadline; it does not create an extension. The entire remaining account, including subsequent gains, must be emptied; the displayed amount only illustrates the balance entered.

Table I, two bases and spouse recalculation. For a nonspouse designated beneficiary, begin with Table I at the beneficiary's age on their birthday in the year after death, then subtract one for each elapsed year, with a divisor floor of 1.0. For an estate after RBD, begin with the owner's age on the birthday in the year of death, and subtract one for each later year. After RBD, the longer applicable remaining life of the owner or designated beneficiary controls, as described in Pub. 590-B and Treas. Reg. §1.401(a)(9)-5(d). A sole-beneficiary spouse's life expectancy is “redetermined each distribution calendar year” under §1.401(a)(9)-5(d)(3)(iv); it does not simply decline by one. Table I includes the 106–107 plateau at 2.1, 108–112 at 2.0, age 118 at 1.4 and 120+ at 1.0. Annual RMD = prior December 31 balance ÷ applicable divisor, rounded half-up to cents. Amounts are total requirements before withdrawals already made. The timeline uses dollars only for the selected year; other balances are unknown.

Spouse choices. Before RBD, a surviving spouse may have treat-as-own, inherited life-expectancy and 10-year choices. This report does not select an election or calculate special spouse commencement delays; it shows “Depends on spouse election,” not a blanket no-RMD conclusion. A displayed 10-year deadline is conditional on that election. After RBD, this report uses the inherited life-expectancy path and does not allow a 10-year election. Treat as own remains available under Treas. Reg. §1.408-8(c)(1)(i), including after distributions have begun, and requires a separate owner-RMD analysis.

EDB qualification, minor children and IRA records. EDB classes include a surviving spouse, the owner's child under 21, a qualifying disabled or chronically ill person, and a person not more than 10 years younger than the owner (compare exact birth dates, not rounded ages). Treas. Reg. §1.401(a)(9)-4(e)(3) states: “An individual reaches the age of majority on the individual's 21st birthday.” Section 1.408-8(a)(1) applies the rule to IRAs. The child's life-expectancy annual distributions begin the year after death; they continue after majority and the account must be empty by the end of the tenth year after reaching 21. If age is unknown, this tool reports the required regime without inventing an amount or deadline. Other EDBs are modeled on the life-expectancy path; a permitted before-RBD 10-year alternative is not selected here. The chosen beneficiary class is an eligibility attestation, not independently determined by these seven inputs. Under §1.408-8(b)(4)(i), the documentation described in §1.401(a)(9)-4(e)(7) “need not be provided to the IRA trustee, custodian, or issuer.” Disability/chronic-illness qualification still applies. The plan-administrator documentation deadline is not imposed on an IRA by that provision; this does not bar custodian record requests.

Input contract and exclusions. Balance accepts full numbers with correctly grouped commas, clamps negatives to $0, caps at $10,000,000 and rounds half-up to cents. Malformed groups such as 1,23, blank or invalid text stay visible with an error and retain the last valid full amount; fields commit on blur or Enter. Age must be a whole number 0–150; 120+ uses the table's last value. The explicit “Age unknown” action omits the age without silently using zero. Owner birth dates 1850–2026, death dates 2020–2026 and distribution years 2021–2120 are tool input bounds, not statutory limits. Out of scope: trust beneficiaries, pre-2020 deaths under older stretch rules, the owner's year-of-death RMD and final-return reporting, successor beneficiaries, spouse election/commencement calculations, multi-account aggregation, income and excise taxes, state tax, and custodian statement reconciliation. No investment growth is projected. Verify classifications, elections and actual account values with the custodian. Illustration only. ESTIMATED · NOT ADVICE / ILLUSTRATION · NOT OFFICIAL.