Heirs who inherited an IRA from an owner who died after 2019, and who had already started required withdrawals, generally must take an annual distribution, including one for 2026, before the year ends on Dec. 31. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sets that yearly requirement inside the 10-year rule. The 10-year rule does not let such an heir wait until the last year.
The split is easy to blur. If the owner died before reaching the required beginning date, the IRS says no distribution is needed before the 10th year. If the owner died on or after that date, annual required minimum distributions (RMDs) apply after the year of death.
The required beginning date is the point at which the owner had to start taking RMDs. For most people it follows age 73, with the first withdrawal allowed to wait until April 1 of the next year.
The question for an heir is practical: did the owner die after taking RMDs, and has the 2026 amount come out of the account yet? A shortfall at year-end can draw an excise tax.
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Who is on the clock for 2026
The IRS beneficiary page sorts heirs by when the owner died. For deaths in 2020 or later, a designated beneficiary who is not an "eligible" one must follow the 10-year rule and empty the whole account by the end of the 10th year after the owner’s death.
Eligible designated beneficiaries get different treatment. The IRS names a surviving spouse, a child who has not reached the age of majority, a disabled or chronically ill person, and someone not more than ten years younger than the owner. Those heirs often can stretch withdrawals over their own life expectancy.
Annual amounts inside the ten years
IRS Publication 590-B covers the case where the owner died on or after the required beginning date. A designated beneficiary who is not an eligible one bases each year’s RMD, after the year of death, on the longer of the heir’s single life expectancy or the owner’s. The balance must still be gone within 10 years.
The IRS put the annual-withdrawal view in writing in Notice 2022-53, which says the beneficiary must take an annual RMD beginning in the first calendar year after the year of death. Final regulations apply to distribution years beginning in 2025, according to the Internal Revenue Bulletin that published them.
How the 10th-year deadline fits
The annual withdrawal and the 10-year rule are two separate requirements. Publication 590-B states the outer limit: the full balance must come out by Dec. 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the owner’s death. Its example has an owner dying in 2025 and the account emptied by Dec. 31, 2035.
An heir can therefore owe a smaller amount each year and a final sweep of what remains in year 10. Taking only the final-year lump sum skips the earlier annual requirement in the owner-past-start-date case.
What a missed withdrawal costs
The IRS RMD FAQs say a missed amount may be subject to an excise tax of 25 percent, or 10 percent if the RMD is timely corrected within two years. The tax is reported on Form 5329 with the federal return for the year the full amount was required.
The IRS also says the penalty may be waived for reasonable error if Form 5329 is filed with a letter of explanation. Past relief was narrow. Notice 2022-53 covered missed amounts for 2021 and 2022 only.
Roth IRAs and the owner’s start date
A Roth IRA changes the starting point. The IRS says Roth owners face no RMDs during life, and that beneficiaries of Roth IRAs are still subject to the beneficiary rules. Because a Roth owner never reaches a required beginning date, the 10-year rule applies without the owner-past-start-date annual step.
Heirs with several accounts should check each one. A traditional IRA, a Roth and an employer plan can follow different clocks, and the custodian may calculate the figure while the heir remains responsible for taking it.
Inherited an IRA and not sure of the 2026 amount?
The owner’s date of death and required beginning date decide it. The custodian can show both.
Inherited-IRA rules start with a form. Whoever is named on the beneficiary designation inherits, no matter what a will says, and an old account at a former job can pass the same way without anyone remembering it exists.
The Beneficiary Audit shows how to find out who is named on every IRA, 401(k), pension, annuity and life insurance form, get it in writing and fix what is wrong, in one afternoon. It includes a list of every account that passes by a form, old jobs included, and a request letter that asks each company to confirm in writing.
Run the Beneficiary Audit on every IRA form before an heir faces the Dec. 31 withdrawal →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
