Non-Spouse Inherited IRA Rules: The 10-Year Rule for Children, Siblings, and Other Beneficiaries

If you inherited an IRA from anyone other than a spouse, the SECURE Act almost certainly changed your options. Here's what that means for your tax bill over the next decade — and whether you owe annual distributions along the way.

The short answer: Most non-spouse beneficiaries must empty the inherited IRA within 10 years of the original owner's death (the SECURE Act 10-year rule). Whether you must also take annual required minimum distributions during that window — or can defer everything to year 10 — depends on whether the original owner had already started their own RMDs when they died. This distinction was finalized by IRS regulations T.D. 10001 in July 2024.¹

Who counts as a non-spouse beneficiary?

For inherited IRA purposes, you're a non-spouse beneficiary if you inherited from anyone other than your legal spouse — most commonly:

Adult child inheriting from a parent (the most common scenario)
Grandchild inheriting from a grandparent
Sibling inheriting from a sibling
Niece or nephew inheriting from an aunt or uncle
Non-family beneficiary (close friend, domestic partner not legally married)
A trust or estate named as beneficiary (different rules — see Trust Beneficiary Inherited IRA guide)

Non-spouse inheritors cannot roll the inherited IRA into their own IRA. The account must stay titled as an inherited IRA in the decedent's name for your benefit (e.g., "John Smith IRA FBO Jane Smith, Beneficiary"), and the 10-year depletion clock runs from the year of the original owner's death.

First: check whether you qualify as an Eligible Designated Beneficiary

Before reading further, rule out whether the 10-year rule applies to you at all. The IRS recognizes five categories of Eligible Designated Beneficiaries (EDBs) who still qualify for the pre-SECURE "stretch" distribution rules over their own life expectancy (IRC § 401(a)(9)(E)(ii)):²

Surviving spouse of the decedent
Minor child of the decedent — specifically the account owner's own child under age 21 (not grandchildren, nieces, or nephews). Stretch applies until the child turns 21; then a 10-year window begins from that birthday.
Disabled individual who meets the IRS disability standard under IRC § 72(m)(7)
Chronically ill individual certified under IRC § 7702B(c)(2)
Any individual who is not more than 10 years younger than the original IRA owner (a close-in-age sibling or partner — not most adult children, who are typically 25+ years younger than their parents)

If you fit one of those categories, different — generally more favorable — rules apply. The rest of this page is for everyone else: beneficiaries subject to the 10-year rule.

Not sure? Read the full Eligible Designated Beneficiary guide.

The SECURE Act 10-year rule: what it actually means

The SECURE Act of 2019, effective for IRA owner deaths after December 31, 2019, eliminated the "stretch IRA" for most non-spouse beneficiaries. Before SECURE, you could take distributions over your own life expectancy — sometimes 30 or 40 years. That strategy no longer exists for non-EDB beneficiaries.

Instead, the rule is: the entire inherited IRA must be depleted by December 31 of the 10th year following the year the original owner died.¹ There's no required pacing within the 10 years — except when the annual RMD rule applies (see below).

10-year window example: Your mother died in June 2023. Year 10 ends December 31, 2033. The full account balance must be withdrawn by that date. If any balance remains on January 1, 2034, the entire remaining amount is includable in your taxable income that year — plus the 25% excise tax on the amount that should have been distributed (IRC § 4974).³

The question that splits non-spouse beneficiaries into two groups

The SECURE Act was silent on whether beneficiaries must take annual distributions during the 10-year window, or simply clear the account by year 10. The IRS proposed in 2022 — and finalized in T.D. 10001 (July 2024) — that the answer turns on one fact: whether the original owner had passed their Required Beginning Date (RBD) when they died.

What is the Required Beginning Date?

The RBD is the deadline by which the original IRA owner was required to start their own lifetime RMDs:

Born 1951–1959: RBD is April 1 of the year after they turned 73 (SECURE 2.0 Act, § 107).⁴
Born 1960 or later: RBD is April 1 of the year after they turned 75.⁴
Born 1950 or earlier: RBD was April 1 of the year after they turned 72 (pre-SECURE 2.0 rules applicable to that cohort).

Group A: original owner died before their RBD — full flexibility

No annual RMDs are required during your 10-year window. You can take any amount, at any time, in any pattern during years 1–9. The only binding deadline is full depletion by December 31 of year 10.

This is the more common scenario when inheriting from parents. A parent who died at 65, or who died at 71 before reaching their RBD of 73 or 75, puts you in Group A.

Common strategies:

Income-gap front-loading: Take more in years when your income is temporarily lower — parental leave, sabbatical, early retirement before Social Security — to absorb the distribution in a lower bracket.
Roth conversion coordination: In low-income years, take inherited IRA distributions and convert your own traditional IRA to Roth simultaneously — filling the 22% or 24% bracket without doubling up in a high-income year.
Back-loading: If your income will decline as you approach retirement, defer larger distributions until your bracket drops.
Year-10 sweep: Take nothing for 9 years and liquidate in year 10 — sometimes optimal if you expect to retire before year 10 and want the distribution to land in a much lower bracket.

Use the Roth Conversion Coordinator and the 10-Year Withdrawal Optimizer to model your specific scenario.

Group B: original owner died on or after their RBD — annual RMDs required

You must take annual RMDs in each of years 1 through 9, using the Single Life Expectancy Table (IRS Pub. 590-B, App. B, Table I) based on your age in the year after the owner's death, reducing the factor by 1 each subsequent year.⁵ And the account must still be fully depleted by December 31 of year 10. Both requirements apply simultaneously — the annual RMDs don't substitute for the 10-year deadline.

Missing an annual RMD triggers a 25% excise tax on the shortfall, reduced to 10% if corrected within a 2-year correction window (SECURE 2.0, § 302).³ See the full mechanics: Inherited IRA RMD Rules — annual calculation and penalty correction.

Important 2025 context: The IRS waived penalties for all missed annual inherited-IRA distributions from 2021 through 2024 (IRS Notices 2022-53, 2023-54, 2024-35). Those waivers are over. If you inherited a post-RBD IRA in 2020 or later and skipped your 2025 annual distribution, the 25% excise tax applies.

How to determine your group: Note the year of death from the death certificate. Then determine the decedent's birth year and their corresponding RBD age (72, 73, or 75). Did they die before April 1 of the year following the year they reached that age — even one day before? If yes: Group A, full flexibility. If no: Group B, annual RMDs required. This is a binary determination with no middle ground.

Inherited Roth IRA: different outcome for non-spouse beneficiaries

Non-spouse beneficiaries inheriting a Roth IRA are still subject to the 10-year depletion rule. But there's a major difference: no annual RMDs are required — regardless of when the original owner died. Roth IRAs have no Required Beginning Date (owners are never required to take lifetime distributions under IRC § 408A(c)(5)). Without an RBD, the post-RBD annual RMD trigger cannot apply to inherited Roth IRAs.

For inherited Roth IRAs, you can often defer the entire account to year 10 and take a lump-sum distribution completely free of federal income tax — if the original Roth IRA has met the 5-year holding rule. See the full guide: Inherited Roth IRA Rules — 10-year rule, 5-year clock, and defer-to-year-10 strategy.

Non-spouse rules also apply to inherited 401(k)s and employer plans

The SECURE Act 10-year rule applies to non-spouse beneficiaries of 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and other qualified employer plans — not just IRAs. If you inherit a 401(k), you can roll it directly to an inherited IRA via IRC § 402(c)(11) trustee-to-trustee transfer, giving you more investment options and consolidating the account under one 10-year clock.

This must be a direct transfer — not a check payable to you. If you receive the funds personally, that distribution is immediately taxable with no rollover allowed. See: Inherited 401(k) Rollover — how to transfer without triggering taxes.

Common mistakes non-spouse beneficiaries make

Assuming the stretch IRA still applies. Some attorneys, accountants, and even financial advisors still refer to pre-2020 rules. If someone tells you that you can spread distributions over your own lifetime, verify the year of death. If after December 31, 2019, the stretch IRA is gone for most non-spouses.
Taking equal 10% annual withdrawals without modeling taxes. This feels intuitive — 10% per year for 10 years, done. But it ignores your bracket trajectory. Equal payments are rarely optimal when income varies across the window.
Missing the year-of-death RMD obligation. If the original owner was past their RBD and had not yet taken their full RMD in the year of death, that shortfall must be distributed to the beneficiary before December 31 of that year — before any 10-year clock distributions. Missing it creates a separate penalty.
Missing the separate account deadline for shared inherited IRAs. If you and a sibling (or other co-beneficiaries) are both named on the same inherited IRA, separate accounts must be established by December 31 of the year following the year of death to get independent RMD factors. See: Multiple Beneficiaries on an Inherited IRA.
Miscounting the 10-year endpoint. The clock runs from the year of death, not the year you opened the inherited IRA account. If the owner died in 2022, year 10 ends December 31, 2032 — regardless of when the account transfer was completed.

When a specialist adds the most value

The mechanical rules are public. What a fee-only inherited IRA specialist adds:

Multi-year tax projection: modeling your income across all 10 years — salary, Social Security, other retirement accounts, and the inherited IRA — to find the lowest-total-tax distribution pattern. On inherited accounts over $300K, the tax savings typically exceed the advisor fee by multiples.
Roth conversion coordination: inherited IRA withdrawals and own-IRA Roth conversions in the same year fill the same bracket twice. A specialist spaces them to avoid bracket overlap and IRMAA Medicare premium surcharges.
Year-10 liability management: ensuring you don't arrive at year 10 with an unexpectedly large balance that creates a one-year tax spike — and that you've positioned enough in Roth or after-tax accounts to absorb the hit if it happens.
Group B RMD tracking: custodians may calculate the annual RMD floor for you, but you're legally responsible for its accuracy and for taking the correct amount. Missed amounts compound — a specialist maintains the running life expectancy factor and coordinates with your overall plan.

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Sources

SECURE Act of 2019 (P.L. 116-94), effective for IRA owner deaths after December 31, 2019, eliminating stretch distributions for most non-spouse beneficiaries. IRS T.D. 10001, "Required Minimum Distributions," finalized July 18, 2024, confirming the annual RMD requirement for inherited IRAs when the decedent died on or after their Required Beginning Date. IRS — Required Minimum Distributions for IRA Beneficiaries.
IRC § 401(a)(9)(E)(ii) (Eligible Designated Beneficiary categories): surviving spouse, minor child of the employee, disabled person under § 72(m)(7), chronically ill individual under § 7702B(c)(2), any individual not more than 10 years younger. Cornell LII — IRC § 401(a)(9)(E)(ii).
IRC § 4974 (excise tax on missed RMDs), as amended by SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, § 302: 25% excise tax on missed distributions; reduced to 10% if shortfall corrected within a 2-year correction window. IRS — Correcting RMD Failures.
SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, § 107 (amending IRC § 401(a)(9)(C)): Required Beginning Date is April 1 of the year following the year the owner turns 73 (born 1951–1959) or 75 (born 1960 or later). IRS — Retirement Topics: RMDs.
IRS Publication 590-B (2025 edition), Appendix B, Table I: Single Life Expectancy Table used to calculate annual RMDs for non-spouse inherited IRAs where the decedent died on or after their RBD. IRS Publication 590-B.

Rules verified against 2026 IRS guidance. T.D. 10001 annual RMD requirement effective for distributions beginning in 2025. SECURE 2.0 penalty rates (IRC § 4974) effective January 1, 2023.