Personal Finance & Estate › Retirement accounts & pensions › Required minimum distributions (RMDs)
Inherited IRA 10-year rule
Since 2020· Tax rule
Law or rule (2026)Set by statute, regulation or the agency; numbers change yearly.
Most non-spouse heirs must empty an inherited IRA or 401(k) by the end of the tenth year after the owner's death.
See it on the Personal Finance & Estate map →How it works
For deaths after 2019, the SECURE Act replaced lifetime 'stretch' payouts for most heirs. Exempt 'eligible' beneficiaries: a surviving spouse, a minor child (until 21), disabled or chronically ill heirs, and anyone not more than 10 years younger. If the owner had already started RMDs, heirs must also take yearly withdrawals in years 1–9 (enforced from 2025). Inherited Roth accounts follow the 10-year rule but stay tax-free. Main trap: waiting until year ten and stacking the income.
Why it matters for you
It turned inherited IRAs into a 10-year tax-planning problem for children; ask a CPA about spreading withdrawals across low-income years.
Rules, limits and sources (2026)
SECURE Act Sec. 401; IRS final regulations (July 2024); IRS Notices 2022-53, 2023-54 and 2024-35 waived penalties for missed 2021–2024 withdrawals.
Watch out for
Naming a trust as IRA beneficiary raises tricky 'see-through trust' questions; estate attorneys still debate the best drafting.
Connections (2)
▸Inherited IRA 10-year rule is the heirs' version of Required minimum distributions (RMDs)Law or rule (2026)
How they connect
RMDs make the original owner withdraw yearly; the 10-year rule governs heirs after death. If the owner had already begun RMDs, heirs keep annual withdrawals going in years 1–9 and must empty the account by year 10. A surviving spouse can instead treat the IRA as their own.
When it applies
Applies to deaths after 2019; annual withdrawals by heirs have been enforced since 2025, after four years of IRS penalty waivers.
The rule
IRS final regulations under IRC Sec. 401(a)(9), published July 2024, confirmed the annual-withdrawal requirement.
Watch out for
Many heirs and some custodians missed the annual rule during the waiver years; how strictly the IRS will police it is unclear.
▸SECURE Act (2019) & SECURE 2.0 (2022) created Inherited IRA 10-year ruleLaw or rule (2026)
How they connect
The 2019 SECURE Act ended the lifetime 'stretch IRA' for most non-spouse heirs, replacing it with a 10-year deadline. Congress used the change partly to raise revenue: faster withdrawals bring tax forward. SECURE 2.0 later adjusted rules for trusts and surviving spouses.
When it applies
Applies to IRA and 401(k) owners dying on or after January 1, 2020, under SECURE Act Section 401.
The rule
Statute text; congressional revenue estimates scored the change as raising roughly $15 billion over ten years.
Watch out for
Whether heirs should withdraw evenly or wait for low-income years is a tax-planning call; trusts as beneficiaries remain complicated.