Inherited IRA Required Beginning Date: Group A or Group B?

The single most important threshold in inherited IRA planning is whether the original IRA owner had passed their Required Beginning Date (RBD) at the time of death. IRS T.D. 10001 (finalized July 2024) uses this fact to split non-spouse beneficiaries into two groups with fundamentally different annual distribution obligations during the SECURE Act's 10-year window.¹

Group A vs. Group B: Side-by-Side

RBD Determination Calculator

Enter the original IRA owner's birth year and the year they died. The calculator determines their Required Beginning Date and which group applies to you.

Required Beginning Date Reference Table

This table shows the RBD for each birth year, based on which law applied when the owner's RMD age was reached. Use this to look up the RBD without the calculator.

* For owners born before 1949, the birth half of year (January–June vs. July–December) affects the RBD. The birth month determines when the owner reached age 70½, which determines the following year's April 1 deadline.

The April 1 Nuance — Why the Date of Death Matters More Than the Year

The Required Beginning Date is specifically April 1 of the calendar year following the year the owner attains the relevant RMD age (70½, 72, 73, or 75). This means:

• An owner born in 1952 has an RBD of April 1, 2026. If they died on March 31, 2026 — one day before — they are Group A.
• If they died on April 1, 2026 or any day after, they are Group B.
• The year of death alone is not sufficient when the death year equals the RBD year. Always check the exact date of death on the death certificate.

Group B: Understanding the Annual RMD Obligation

If the original owner was in Group B (died after their RBD), you must calculate and take a required minimum distribution each year during years 1 through 9 of your 10-year window. The calculation uses the IRS Single Life Expectancy Table (Publication 590-B, Table I, updated 2022 per T.D. 9930):²

1. Year 1: Find your age in the Single Life Expectancy Table. Divide the prior December 31 account balance by the corresponding life expectancy factor. That is your minimum distribution for year 1.
2. Years 2–9: Subtract 1 from the prior year's factor each year. Divide each year's December 31 balance by the reduced factor.
3. Year 10: Take any remaining balance by December 31 of year 10. The life expectancy factor calculation does not apply — you must take everything.

The annual RMD is a floor, not a ceiling. You can always withdraw more than the minimum in any year — and in many cases, a front-loaded strategy that exceeds the minimum in low-income years reduces the year-10 tax spike. See the 10-Year Distribution Strategy guide for the bracket analysis.

The 2021–2024 waiver period is over

The IRS waived annual RMD penalties for Group B non-spouse beneficiaries in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 via Notices 2022-53, 2023-54, and 2024-35 — while T.D. 10001 was still being finalized. Those waivers expired. Starting in 2025, Group B beneficiaries who skip their annual RMD owe a 25% excise tax on the shortfall, reduced to 10% if corrected within a 2-year correction window under SECURE 2.0 § 302.³

If you were in Group B and did not take RMDs during any of the waiver years, you are not retroactively penalized for those years — the waivers were relief provisions, not deferrals. But 2025 and beyond are fully mandatory. See the Missed Inherited IRA RMD guide for the Form 5329 correction process.

Group A: The Full Flexibility of No Annual Minimums

If the original owner was in Group A (died before their RBD), you have no minimum distribution obligation in any of years 1 through 9. The only hard deadline is December 31 of year 10 — by which point every dollar must be distributed.

This flexibility is genuinely valuable for tax planning:

• Take nothing in high-income years (busy working, peak salary, large bonus, RSU vesting)
• Take more in low-income years (career transition, pre-Medicare window, years before Social Security claiming)
• Coordinate with Roth conversions from your own IRA — take inherited IRA distributions in years you're below the conversion ceiling, and use your own IRA for conversions in other years
• Use the full 10 years to smooth income across tax brackets rather than concentrating distributions

The primary risk for Group A beneficiaries is the year-10 trap: deferring too long and arriving at year 10 with the full balance, triggering a large single-year distribution that stacks on top of ordinary income, Social Security, and Medicare premium thresholds. Use the 10-Year Withdrawal Optimizer to model the total tax across all strategies before deciding on year-10 deferral.

Special Cases

Inherited Roth IRAs — always Group A equivalent

Roth IRAs have no Required Beginning Date because the original owner was never subject to lifetime required minimum distributions under IRC § 408A(c)(5). This means every Roth IRA beneficiary is in the Group A equivalent: 10-year depletion, no annual minimums. Per T.D. 10001, the post-RBD annual RMD trigger requires an actual RBD — and Roth IRAs have none.⁴ See the Inherited Roth IRA rules guide for the full analysis, including the 5-year rule for tax-free earnings.

Eligible Designated Beneficiaries (EDBs)

The five EDB categories — surviving spouse, minor child of the owner, disabled, chronically ill, and not-more-than-10-years-younger — use life expectancy (stretch) distributions rather than the 10-year rule. But the RBD determination still matters for EDB stretch beneficiaries: if the owner was post-RBD, the beneficiary's first annual stretch RMD is due in the year following the owner's death. If the owner was pre-RBD, the beneficiary can use their own life expectancy factor from scratch. See the Eligible Designated Beneficiary rules guide for the full EDB framework.

Pre-2020 inherited IRAs

The SECURE Act's 10-year rule and T.D. 10001's Group A/B framework apply only to beneficiaries of owners who died on or after January 1, 2020. If you inherited from someone who died before 2020, different rules apply: you have stretch IRA rights (life expectancy distributions), and the Group A/B framework is not your governing rule. See the Pre-SECURE Act Inherited IRA guide.

Year-of-Death RMD: Separate Obligation That Applies in Both Groups

If the original owner died after their RBD (Group B), they may not have taken their full required minimum distribution for the year of death. Any unpaid portion becomes the beneficiary's obligation — it must be taken by December 31 of the year of death (not over the 10-year window). This is called the year-of-death RMD and exists independently of the Group A/B annual RMD question.⁵

Group A beneficiaries (pre-RBD decedents) owe no year-of-death RMD — the owner had not yet started RMDs, so there is nothing outstanding to complete.

See the Year-of-Death RMD guide for the calculation and multi-beneficiary pro-rata rules.

Sources

1. IRS T.D. 10001, "Required Minimum Distributions" (finalized July 18, 2024). Establishes the pre-RBD (Group A) and post-RBD (Group B) classification for 10-year rule beneficiaries and whether annual RMDs are required during years 1–9. IRS — RMDs for IRA Beneficiaries.
2. IRS Publication 590-B (2025 edition), Table I — Single Life Expectancy Table. Updated life expectancy factors apply per T.D. 9930 (effective 2022). IRS Publication 590-B (Distributions from IRAs).
3. SECURE Act 2.0 of 2022 (Division T of P.L. 117-328), § 302 — amending IRC § 4974. Reduced missed-RMD excise tax from 50% to 25%; further reduced to 10% with 2-year correction. IRS Notices 2022-53, 2023-54, and 2024-35 waived penalties for 2021–2024 for 10-year rule beneficiaries; those waivers have expired. IRS — Retirement Topics: RMDs.
4. IRC § 408A(c)(5) — Roth IRA owners are not subject to the minimum distribution requirements of § 401(a)(9) during their lifetime. T.D. 10001 confirms that the absence of a lifetime RBD means Roth IRA beneficiaries have no annual RMD obligation during the 10-year window. IRS — Roth IRAs.
5. IRC § 401(a)(9)(A) and IRS Publication 590-B — year-of-death RMD obligation for beneficiaries when decedent died with a partially unsatisfied annual RMD. The obligation passes to the beneficiary and must be satisfied by December 31 of the year of death. IRS Publication 590-B.

Tax rules verified against 2026 IRS guidance. RBD ages and applicable laws reflect the SECURE Act of 2019 (Pub. L. 116-94), the SECURE Act 2.0 of 2022 (Pub. L. 117-328), and IRS T.D. 10001 (effective for distributions in 2025 and after). Values verified June 2026.