Retirement Planner Calc

Last Updated: May 2026

Inherited IRA RMD Calculator 2026

Calculate required distributions from an inherited IRA using the IRS Single Life Expectancy Table and the SECURE Act 10-year rule.

Inherited IRAs follow completely different rules than your own retirement accounts. You do not use the Uniform Lifetime Table, your age is not 73, and for most beneficiaries the entire account has to be gone within ten years of the original owner's death.

This calculator applies the IRS Single Life Expectancy Table (Table I) with the subtract-one method, checks whether annual distributions are required during the 10-year window, and shows the year your account must be emptied. Missing a required distribution carries a 25% excise tax.

Your Inputs

Your 2026 Required Distribution

$9,524

Single Life divisor 31.5

Your Distribution Rule

The 10-year rule applies. The entire account must be distributed by December 31, 2034. Because the owner had already begun RMDs, you must also take an annual distribution in each of years one through nine.

Penalty for a Missed Distribution

A missed inherited IRA RMD triggers a 25% excise tax on the shortfall, reduced to 10% if corrected within the two-year window using Form 5329. IRS penalty relief for the 2021–2024 distribution years has ended — annual RMDs are enforceable from the 2025 distribution year forward.

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Your Distribution Schedule

YearEst. BalanceDivisorDistributionStatus
2026$300,00031.5$9,524Annual RMD
2027$305,00030.5$10,000Annual RMD
2028$309,75029.5$10,500Annual RMD
2029$314,21328.5$11,025Annual RMD
2030$318,34727.5$11,576Annual RMD
2031$322,10926.5$12,155Annual RMD
2032$325,45225.5$12,763Annual RMD
2033$328,32324.5$13,401Annual RMD
2034$330,669—$330,669Account must be emptied

Projection assumes a 5% annual return and that you withdraw only the required amount each year.

How Inherited IRA RMDs Are Calculated

Step 1 — Establish your divisor once. In the year after the owner's death, look up your age on the IRS Single Life Expectancy Table. A 56-year-old beneficiary gets a divisor of 30.6. That number is your baseline and you never look it up again.

Step 2 — Subtract one per year. Every following year you reduce the baseline by exactly 1.0: 30.6, then 29.6, then 28.6. This is the subtract-one or fixed-term method, and it is the single biggest difference between inherited IRA math and the owner's own RMD math.

Step 3 — Divide the prior-year-end balance. A $300,000 balance with a divisor of 29.6 produces a required distribution of $10,135 for the year.

Step 4 — Track the year-ten deadline separately. Annual distributions do not satisfy the 10-year rule. Whatever remains at the end of year ten must come out in full, which is why beneficiaries who take only the minimum for nine years often face a very large, very expensive final withdrawal.

The Tax Trap Most Beneficiaries Miss

Because the 10-year rule compresses distributions into a decade rather than a lifetime, the tax question is not how little can I withdraw but how do I spread the income. A beneficiary in their peak earning years who defers everything to year ten can push a six-figure distribution on top of a full salary, potentially crossing two or three tax brackets at once.

The opposite is often better: take voluntary distributions above the minimum in low-income years — a gap year, an early retirement year, a year with large deductions — so the year-ten balance is manageable. Inherited IRAs are one of the few situations where withdrawing more than required is frequently the lower-tax choice.

An inherited Roth IRA flips the logic entirely. There is no income tax on qualified distributions, so letting it compound tax-free for the full ten years and emptying it at the deadline is usually optimal.

Related RMD Resources

Calculating your own RMD instead? Use the RMD calculator. For the full IRS divisor tables see the 2026 RMD tables, or read the RMD age and rules guide.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Under the SECURE Act, most non-spouse beneficiaries who inherit an IRA from someone who died in 2020 or later must empty the entire account by December 31 of the tenth year following the year of death. The old 'stretch IRA' — spreading distributions across the beneficiary's own life expectancy — was eliminated for these beneficiaries. The 10-year rule applies to the account balance, not to a fixed annual schedule: what matters is that the balance reaches zero by the deadline.
It depends on whether the original owner had already begun taking RMDs. If the owner died on or after their required beginning date — meaning they had already started RMDs — the beneficiary must take annual RMDs in years one through nine based on the Single Life Expectancy Table, and empty the account in year ten. If the owner died before their required beginning date, no annual distributions are required; the beneficiary only has to empty the account by the end of year ten. Final IRS regulations issued in 2024 confirmed this and made annual RMDs mandatory beginning in the 2025 distribution year.
Five categories of 'eligible designated beneficiaries' can still stretch distributions over their own life expectancy: the surviving spouse, a minor child of the account owner (until they reach age 21, at which point the 10-year clock starts), a disabled beneficiary, a chronically ill beneficiary, and any beneficiary who is not more than 10 years younger than the deceased owner. Everyone else — adult children, grandchildren, siblings, friends — falls under the 10-year rule.
For a non-spouse beneficiary subject to annual RMDs, you look up your own age in the year following the owner's death on the IRS Single Life Expectancy Table (Table I). That gives your initial divisor. In every subsequent year you subtract 1.0 from that starting divisor rather than looking the table up again. This is called the 'subtract-one' or fixed-term method, and it is why inherited IRA divisors shrink by exactly one each year while the owner's own Uniform Lifetime divisors shrink more gradually.
A surviving spouse has options no other beneficiary has. They can treat the inherited IRA as their own by retitling it or rolling it into their existing IRA, which restarts RMDs based on their own age using the Uniform Lifetime Table and allows them to name new beneficiaries. Alternatively, they can remain a beneficiary and use the Single Life Expectancy Table, recalculated annually rather than subtract-one, which can be advantageous if the surviving spouse is under 59½ and needs penalty-free access to the funds. SECURE 2.0 added a further election allowing a surviving spouse to be treated as the deceased spouse for RMD timing purposes.
The penalty is a 25% excise tax on the amount you failed to withdraw, reduced to 10% if you correct the shortfall within the applicable two-year correction window and file Form 5329. The IRS waived penalties for missed inherited IRA RMDs for the 2021 through 2024 distribution years while the regulations were being finalized, but that relief ended — annual RMDs are fully enforceable beginning with the 2025 distribution year.
Yes and no. An inherited Roth IRA is still subject to the 10-year emptying rule for non-spouse beneficiaries, but because the original Roth owner is never treated as having reached a required beginning date, there are no mandatory annual distributions during years one through nine. The beneficiary can let the account grow tax-free for the full ten years and withdraw everything at the end. Distributions are income-tax-free as long as the original Roth account had been open at least five years.

Projections are estimates based on your inputs and assumed rates of return. Actual investment performance, tax rates, and Social Security benefits will differ. This calculator does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Consult a qualified financial advisor for personalized retirement planning.

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