How to use this calculator
- Choose the tax year, whether the account is a traditional or Roth IRA, and enter what it held on December 31 of the year before. The year-end statement from the custodian shows it.
- Enter the year the original owner was born and the year they died. If you inherited the account from someone who had inherited it themselves, this calculator does not cover your case.
- Choose how you are related to the owner and enter the year you were born. If a question appears under a year, it is because that year alone cannot settle the rule; answer it.
- For a traditional IRA with a deadline, enter your filing status and your other taxable income, and the calculator compares four ways of taking the money out.
- Under More options: tick disabled or chronically ill if that applied when the owner died, and enter anything you have already withdrawn this year, your capital gains and your Social Security.
The numbers already filled in are an example. Replace them with your own.
How it's calculated
Which rule applies to you
If the owner died in 2020 or later, you are an eligible designated beneficiary if you were the owner's child under 21, disabled or chronically ill, or not more than 10 years younger than the owner. Everyone else, including most adult children, is on the 10-year rule: the account must be empty by December 31 of the tenth year after the year of death. If the owner died before 2020, the older rules apply and you take yearly minimums on a fixed life expectancy (or, if the account's terms or your choice put you on it, empty the account within five years).
Whether you take something every year
The owner's required beginning date is April 1 of the year after they reached their RMD age (70½ for people born before July 1, 1949; 72, 73 or 75 for later years of birth). If the owner died on or after it, the withdrawals must continue at least as fast as theirs would have, so a 10-year beneficiary takes a yearly minimum in years one to nine. If the owner died before it, or the account is a Roth IRA, nothing is required until the tenth year.
The yearly minimum
The minimum is the balance on December 31 of the year before, divided by a life expectancy from the IRS Single Life Table. You look up your age in the year after the death, then take one off for each year since. If the owner died on or after their required beginning date, the divisor is the longer of your life expectancy and the owner's remaining one, which only matters when you are older than the owner. The result is rounded to the cent.
An example
Say your parent was born in 1945 and died in 2024 at 79, after their required beginning date, and you were born in 1975. You are on the 10-year rule with yearly minimums. In 2025 you turned 50, and the table's figure for 50 is 36.2; take off one for each year since, and the divisor for 2026 is 35.2. With $500,000 in the account on December 31, 2025, your 2026 minimum is $500,000 ÷ 35.2 = $14,204.55, and the account must be empty by December 31, 2034.
If the same parent had been born in 1964 and died at 60, before their required beginning date, your 2026 minimum would be $0.00: nothing is due until 2034, when the whole account must be out. If you had been their child, born in 2010 and so 14 at the death, you would take yearly minimums on your own life expectancy (68.9 for 2026, a minimum of $7,256.89) until 2041, the year you turn 31. A sibling born five years after the owner has no 10-year deadline and takes yearly minimums on a fixed life expectancy instead: $36,231.88 for 2026 on a divisor of 13.8, which falls by one each year until the account is empty in 2039.
The withdrawal plans
Each plan must meet every yearly minimum and empty the account by the deadline. "Only the minimum" takes the least each year and the rest in the last year. "Spread evenly" divides what is left by the years remaining. "Fill a tax bracket" takes enough each year to bring your taxable income to the top of one bracket; the calculator tries each bracket and shows the one that keeps you the most. "Everything this year" takes it all now. The tax on each year's withdrawal is the federal income tax it adds to your return, using the year's brackets and standard deduction, the senior deduction while it lasts, and your Social Security and capital gains if you enter them.
With $85,000 of other income, filing single, the example's plans pay these average federal rates on what comes out: only the minimum 30.5%, spread evenly 23.0%, the best bracket plan 23.3%, everything in 2026 31.8%. The one that keeps the most after tax is spreading withdrawals evenly.
Because the plans take money out in different years, they are compared on what you keep: each after-tax withdrawal is grown at your expected return (7.0% in the example) to the end of the deadline year, as if you had invested it, and the growth is not taxed. With the same tax rate every year, every plan would keep about the same amount; the differences come from the brackets. Later years use the latest year's brackets and deductions, raised with inflation.
Assumptions and limits
- One inherited IRA from one original owner, with you as its only beneficiary, or with your share split into its own inherited IRA by December 31 of the year after the death.
- Every dollar in a traditional IRA is treated as taxable. If the owner made nondeductible contributions, part of each withdrawal is tax-free, and Form 8606 works it out.
- An inherited Roth IRA's withdrawals are treated as tax-free. Earnings taken before the owner's first Roth IRA had been open five years can be taxable.
- Withdrawals come at the end of each year, after that year's growth, and the return is the same every year, before fees.
- Future tax law: each year the calculator has figures for uses its own brackets and deductions; later years use the latest year's, rising with inflation, and the senior deduction ends after 2028 as the law now says. Congress can change any of it.
- Your other income, gains and Social Security rise with inflation, and your filing status stays the same. A spouse on a joint return is treated as under 65.
- The tax is federal regular income tax only: not state tax, the net investment income tax, the alternative minimum tax, credits, or Medicare premium surcharges.
- "What you keep" does not tax the growth on money you take out. Growth outside an IRA is usually taxed, which favors leaving money in the IRA longer, and it can change which of two close plans comes out ahead.
- It does not cover a surviving spouse, trusts, estates or charities as beneficiaries, a beneficiary of a beneficiary, inherited 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) accounts (their rules and plan terms can differ), the owner's own minimum for the year of death, annuities inside the IRA, or state rules.
Input field details
What to enter in each box, where to find the number, and how this calculator treats it. When two calculators give different answers from the same numbers, it's usually because they handle one of these differently.
Kind of account
Traditional IRA for a traditional, rollover, SEP or SIMPLE IRA. Roth IRA for a Roth IRA.
Where to find itThe account’s name on your statement, such as “Inherited Roth IRA” or “Beneficiary IRA”.
How this tool treats itA Roth IRA is treated as if the owner died before their required beginning date, so a beneficiary who is not eligible for life-expectancy withdrawals has no yearly minimum, only the 10-year deadline. Withdrawals from an inherited Roth IRA are treated as tax-free, so no withdrawal plans are compared.
Not includedRoth earnings taken before the owner’s first Roth IRA had been open five years, which can be taxable; inherited 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) accounts.
Balance on December 31 of last year
The value of this inherited IRA on December 31 of the year before the tax year.
Where to find itThe account’s December statement, or box 5 of the Form 5498 the custodian sends you.
How this tool treats itThe minimum for a year is figured on the balance at the end of the year before, whatever you add or take out after that date. Several inherited IRAs from the same owner can be added together, and their minimums taken from any of them. If you inherited from more than one person, run the calculator once for each.
Allowed range$0 to $50,000,000
Not includedAfter-tax money the owner put in (basis), which comes out tax-free and is not modelled here.
Year the owner was born
The birth year of the person who first owned the IRA.
Where to find itThe death certificate, or the estate’s paperwork.
How this tool treats itThe owner’s birth year sets the age their own withdrawals had to start (70½ for anyone born before July 1, 1949; 72 for the rest of 1949 and 1950; 73 for 1951 to 1959; 75 from 1960), and so their required beginning date: April 1 of the year after they reached that age.
Allowed range1880 to 2010
Not includedOwners born in 1959: the final regulations leave their age open, and this uses 73, the proposed rule.
Year the owner died
The year the original owner died, even if the account reached you later.
Where to find itThe death certificate.
How this tool treats itDeaths from 2020 on follow the SECURE Act: most beneficiaries must empty the account by December 31 of the tenth year after the death. For a death in 2019 or earlier, an individual beneficiary takes yearly withdrawals over their life expectancy, unless the account’s terms or their own choice put them on the 5-year rule. No beneficiary minimum is due for the year of death itself.
Allowed range1985 to 2050
Not includedThe owner’s own minimum for the year of death, if they had not taken it, which still has to come out that year. The RMD calculator works it out.
The owner was born between January 1 and June 30
On if the owner’s birthday was in the first half of the year.
How this tool treats itOwners born before July 1, 1949 had to start withdrawals at 70½, so the half of the year decides the year they reached it and their required beginning date. This question appears only when the answer to it changes your result.
The owner died before April 1 of their required beginning date year
On if the owner died before April 1 of the year their withdrawals had to start.
How this tool treats itApril 1 of that year was the owner’s required beginning date. A death on April 1 itself, or later, counts as on or after it, which means yearly minimums for a beneficiary who is not eligible for life-expectancy withdrawals. This question appears only when the answer to it changes your result.
Your relationship to the owner
Child for the owner’s son or daughter, including a stepchild, an adopted child and an eligible foster child. Someone else for anyone else, including a grandchild, a sibling, a friend or a former spouse.
How this tool treats itA child who had not turned 21 when the owner died takes yearly minimums on their own life expectancy, and must empty the account by December 31 of the year they turn 31. Anyone not more than 10 years younger than the owner takes yearly minimums on their life expectancy, whatever the relationship, unless they chose the 10-year rule where the account allowed it.
Not includedA surviving spouse, who can treat the IRA as their own; the RMD calculator works out that minimum. Trusts, estates and charities as beneficiaries, and anyone who inherited from a beneficiary rather than from the original owner.
Year you were born
Your birth year.
How this tool treats itYour life expectancy is read from the Single Life Table at your age on your birthday in the year after the owner’s death, then reduced by one for each later year. When the owner died on or after their required beginning date, the divisor is the larger of that and the owner’s own remaining life expectancy.
Allowed range1880 to 2050
You were born on or before the owner’s birthday, ten years after the owner
On if you were born no later than the owner’s birthday in the year shown, which makes you not more than 10 years younger. If the owner was born on February 29, use February 28.
How this tool treats itThe 10-year test runs from date of birth to date of birth: an owner born October 1, 1953 has a beneficiary who qualifies if that beneficiary was born on or before October 1, 1963. This question appears only when the answer to it changes your result.
The owner died before your 21st birthday
On if the owner died before your 21st birthday, in the year you turned 21.
How this tool treats itA child of the owner who had not reached 21 at the death takes yearly minimums until the account must be empty, by December 31 of the year they turn 31. The deadline is the same year either way; the difference is the yearly minimums. This question appears only when the answer to it changes your result.
I was on the 5-year rule
On if the account’s terms, or your own choice, required the whole account out within five years instead of yearly withdrawals.
How this tool treats itBefore 2020 a beneficiary of an owner who died before their required beginning date could be on the 5-year rule. The account had to be empty by December 31 of the fifth year after the death, with 2020 not counted, so a 2019 death has a 2025 deadline and a 2018 death a 2024 deadline. This question appears only when the answer to it changes your result.
I was disabled or chronically ill when the owner died
On if, at the owner’s death, you were unable to do any substantial gainful work because of a condition expected to last indefinitely (under 18: marked and severe limitations), or were found disabled by Social Security; or a practitioner certified that you could not perform two activities of daily living for a long, indefinite period, or needed supervision for a severe cognitive impairment.
How this tool treats itA disabled or chronically ill beneficiary takes yearly minimums on their own life expectancy, with no deadline to empty the account, and this is checked before the minor-child rule. For an IRA, the paperwork does not have to go to the custodian.
I chose the 10-year rule instead of yearly withdrawals
On only if the account’s terms allowed it and you chose it by December 31 of the year after the owner’s death.
How this tool treats itOffered to an eligible beneficiary when the owner died in 2020 or later before their required beginning date, or left a Roth IRA. With it, nothing is required until the tenth year after the death, when everything left must come out. Without it, most IRAs require yearly life-expectancy withdrawals. The calculator cannot check that the choice was made in time.
Already withdrawn this year
What you have already withdrawn from this inherited IRA during the tax year.
Where to find itThe account’s statement or the custodian’s transaction history.
How this tool treats itInclude qualified charitable distributions made from it. Do not include a make-up of an earlier year’s missed minimum, or anything the owner took before dying. Cents are accepted, so a withdrawal of exactly the minimum leaves $0. It changes only what is left to take and the excise tax, not the schedule or the plans.
Allowed range$0 to $50,000,000
Your filing status
The filing status on your federal return.
Where to find itThe checkbox at the top of last year’s Form 1040.
How this tool treats itUsed for the same status every year of the plans. Married filing separately is treated as living with your spouse all year, which makes Social Security taxable from the first dollar and allows no senior deduction.
Your other taxable income each year
Wages, pensions, taxable interest, ordinary dividends and short-term gains, before deductions.
Where to find itLast year’s Form 1040 is a starting point: wages, taxable interest, pensions and other income, not counting this inherited IRA.
How this tool treats itEverything taxable except these withdrawals, your Social Security and the gains under More options. It rises with inflation each year, and the tax shown for a withdrawal is the federal income tax it adds on top of this income, after the standard deduction.
Allowed range$0 to $10,000,000 a year
Not includedItemized deductions, adjustments to income, tax-exempt interest and credits.
Your qualified dividends and long-term gains each year
Your qualified dividends plus net long-term capital gains for a year.
Where to find itQualified dividends are on line 3a of Form 1040; net long-term gains are on Schedule D.
How this tool treats itTaxed on top of your ordinary income at 0%, 15% or 20%, so a withdrawal can push some of them into a higher rate. The tax shown includes that. They rise with inflation each year.
Allowed range$0 to $10,000,000 a year
Not includedThe 3.8% net investment income tax, and gains taxed at 25% or 28%.
Your Social Security benefits each year
Your total Social Security benefits for a year.
Where to find itBox 5 of Form SSA-1099.
How this tool treats itA withdrawal raises your provisional income, which can make more of your benefits taxable, up to 85% of them. The tax shown includes that. Benefits rise with inflation each year; the income thresholds for taxing them do not, because the law fixes them in dollars.
Allowed range$0 to $200,000 a year
Expected return
The average yearly return to assume on the inherited IRA from now on.
How this tool treats itUsed only for future years: this year’s minimum is fixed by last year’s balance. Each year’s growth is added before that year’s withdrawal comes out, and “what you keep” grows each after-tax withdrawal at the same return to the deadline year.
Allowed range0% to 20%
Not includedLosses and the order in which good and bad years arrive, and tax on growth outside the IRA.
Inflation
The yearly inflation rate to assume.
How this tool treats itYour other income, gains and Social Security rise by this each year. Years after the latest tax year in the data use that year’s brackets and deductions rising at the same rate; the Social Security thresholds and the senior deduction stay fixed in dollars, and the senior deduction ends after 2028 as the law now says.
Allowed range0% to 10%
Show future amounts in today’s dollars
On to see future balances, withdrawals and taxes at today’s prices.
How this tool treats itDivides each future year’s figures by one plus your inflation rate (2.5% unless you change it) once for every year after the tax year. This year’s minimum does not change.
Questions
Do I have to take money out every year under the 10-year rule?
What happened to the yearly withdrawals for 2021 to 2024?
Who is an eligible designated beneficiary?
What if I inherited the IRA from my spouse?
Does an inherited Roth IRA have required withdrawals?
Is there a 10% early-withdrawal penalty on an inherited IRA?
What happens if I miss the withdrawal?
Should I take it all at once?
Version history
- September 24, 2026 (version 1.0.0): First version. Works out an inherited IRA's yearly minimum and deadline under the 10-year and life-expectancy rules, and compares withdrawal plans at your federal tax bracket, for 2025 and 2026.