Inherited Roth IRA RMDs

An inherited Roth IRA can have a withdrawal deadline even when the withdrawal is tax-free. Most individual beneficiaries who inherit directly from a Roth IRA owner under the 10-year rule have no annual required minimum distributions (RMDs) in years 1–9, but must empty the account by December 31 of year 10. Eligible beneficiaries using life-expectancy payments follow a different schedule.

Original owners and beneficiaries have different rules

A Roth IRA owner has no lifetime RMDs under IRC §408A(c)(4). After the owner dies, the beneficiary rules apply as though the owner died before their required beginning date. That is the rule in final Treas. Reg. §1.408-8(b)(1)(ii), published in T.D. 10001.

Do not import a traditional IRA owner's age-based deadline into this inherited-Roth calculation. For traditional IRA owners, the final regulations specify age 73 for the 1951–1958 birth cohorts and age 75 for people born in 1960 or later; the first age-75 cohort reaches that age in 2035, not 2033. The 1959 provision remains reserved in that final text; the accompanying proposed rule specifies 73. See our required beginning date guide for the authority-status distinction.

Because the original Roth owner had no lifetime RMD, there is no unpaid owner's RMD for the death year. This does not erase an existing beneficiary's obligation if you are inheriting an account from someone who was already a beneficiary.

Which withdrawal schedule applies?

Example: an adult child who is not an eligible designated beneficiary inherits directly from an owner who dies in 2026. The account must be empty by December 31, 2036. There is no annual RMD for 2027–2035. The child can withdraw earlier; the rule does not require waiting until the final year.

Eligible designated beneficiaries include a surviving spouse, the owner's child under age 21, a qualifying disabled or chronically ill person, and an individual not more than ten years younger than the owner. The statutory definitions matter; an ordinary description of someone's health is not enough to establish eligibility. A minor child's life-expectancy payments generally continue after age 21, with full distribution required by the end of the tenth year after reaching 21.

Likewise, inheriting from an eligible beneficiary after their death can involve both continuing annual payments and a ten-year outer deadline. “Ten-year deadline” does not always mean “no annual payments.” See special beneficiary situations before applying the simple direct-inheritance example to a successor or trust.

Surviving spouses: confirm the choice and the start date

A surviving spouse who is the sole beneficiary and has an unlimited right to withdraw can generally elect to treat the IRA as their own. That produces no lifetime Roth IRA RMDs, but is not automatically the best choice for every spouse. For example, keeping an inherited account can preserve the death exception to the early-distribution tax; treating it as one's own changes which withdrawal rules apply.

A sole-beneficiary spouse who keeps inherited status can generally delay life-expectancy payments until the later of the year after death or the year the deceased owner would have reached the applicable RMD age. Do not assume every spouse must begin the very next year.

Spouses also have special life-expectancy and table/election rules. Current Publication 590-B discusses possible Uniform Lifetime Table use for a spouse remaining a beneficiary. Implementation of the SECURE 2.0 spousal election is addressed by proposed regulations and the interim good-faith framework in Announcement 2026-7. Confirm the applicable method with the custodian and tax adviser; the non-spouse examples below are not a spouse calculation.

How an annual life-expectancy payment is calculated

For a non-spouse eligible designated beneficiary using the life-expectancy method, the starting calculation is:

Prior December 31 account balance ÷ applicable life-expectancy factor.

Use Table I, the Single Life Expectancy Table in Publication 590-B, for the beneficiary's age in the first distribution year. For subsequent years, reduce that starting factor by one per elapsed year rather than looking up a new age row. Use the actual preceding year-end balance each time. Additional withdrawals do not create a credit against a later year's RMD.

The table also gives 20.4 for age 68 in a first distribution year. On a $200,000 balance, that calculation is $9,803.9215…; $9,803.93 covers it. A qualifying non-spouse beneficiary's next factor is 19.4, but the next payment must use the next actual year-end balance. It is not safe to carry forward $200,000 just by assuming a return.

Multiple inherited Roth IRAs: which accounts can be combined?

Calculate each account's required amount separately first. Under Treas. Reg. §1.408-8(e), an inherited IRA's requirement may be satisfied from another inherited IRA only within the permitted group: the same beneficiary, the same deceased owner, and the same Roth versus non-Roth account category. Different owners' inherited accounts cannot be pooled for this purpose.

Your own Roth IRA cannot satisfy an inherited Roth's requirement, and an inherited traditional IRA cannot satisfy an inherited Roth's requirement. Aggregation is not an extension of the applicable deadline. Where the rule requires complete distribution, all accounts subject to that deadline must be emptied.

Taxability: check the five-tax-year clock at distribution

A payment after the owner's death is a qualifying event, but the owner's five-tax-year holding period must also be satisfied for a qualified, federally income-tax-free distribution. The clock begins January 1 of the first tax year for which the owner made a Roth IRA contribution, including a conversion. It continues after death; inheritance does not restart it.

If the period has not ended when money is distributed, regular contributions come out first, then conversions and rollovers under the ordering rules, then earnings. Returning those contribution and conversion amounts does not tax the same amount again. Earnings distributed before qualification can be taxable. The death exception generally removes the 10% early-distribution tax for a beneficiary distribution, even when earnings are taxable; it does not remove a separate missed-RMD excise tax.

Illustration: assume an eligible owner first contributes $6,000 for 2023, converts $50,000 in 2024, makes no other contributions or withdrawals, and dies in 2026 with a $75,000 Roth IRA. The balance contains $56,000 of contributions/conversion amounts and $19,000 of earnings. A $25,000 beneficiary withdrawal in 2026 uses $6,000 of regular contributions and $19,000 of conversion amounts, with no federal income tax. The five-tax-year period ends on January 1, 2028; earnings paid after that point can qualify. Required distribution deadlines still apply.

Keep the owner's contribution, conversion, rollover and withdrawal records, Forms 5498 and relevant Forms 8606. A current account balance alone does not establish remaining basis. Under the Form 8606 instructions, a nonqualified inherited-Roth distribution is a filing trigger; a qualified inherited-Roth distribution does not, by itself, require Part III. Use the instructions for the distribution's tax year.

Missed RMDs: correction and waiver are separate paths

IRC §4974 generally imposes a 25% excise tax on the shortfall, not on the entire account. The reduced 10% rate requires both the corrective distribution and a return reflecting the additional tax during the correction window.

The window ends at the earliest of the IRS mailing a deficiency notice for that tax, assessment of the tax, or the end of the second taxable year beginning after the shortfall year. It is not an unconditional two extra years. A $5,000 shortfall produces $1,250 at 25%, or $500 if the reduced-rate requirements are satisfied.

The IRS can instead waive part or all of the excise tax when the shortfall resulted from reasonable error and reasonable steps are being taken to remedy it. A waiver is discretionary, not guaranteed for a first mistake. The Form 5329 instructions explain the request:

1. Identify the correct year and required amount, and take reasonable steps to remedy the shortfall.
2. Complete that year's Form 5329, Part IX, using its instructions. Attach an explanation of the error and the steps taken.
3. Follow the reasonable-cause procedure for the amount requested to be waived. For the 2025 form, required and actual distributions are on lines 52a/52b and 53a/53b; the “RC” notation and requested shortfall go beside the applicable line 54a/54b, not line 55.
4. Complete line 55 and pay any tax reported there. A waiver request does not suspend payment of other tax still shown as due. Follow the filing instructions if the return has already been filed or no income-tax return is otherwise required.

Use the relevant year's form rather than copying these 2025 line numbers onto a different edition. The IRS reviews the request and notifies the filer if it is not granted. A withdrawal can remain federally income-tax-free while its missed deadline creates a separate excise-tax issue.

Check withholding without assuming it equals tax owed

A qualified inherited-Roth withdrawal is not made taxable merely because a payer withholds tax. The 2026 Form W-4R instructions describe a 10% default on the taxable amount of nonperiodic payments and available elections, with restrictions in some cases, including payments delivered outside the United States. Periodic payments use different instructions.

Ask the custodian how it has classified the payment and which election applies. Withholding is a credit toward the tax return's overall liability, not a guaranteed dollar-for-dollar refund. There is no universal instruction to elect zero for every beneficiary.

Corrections and updates

Correction — September 24, 2026: corrected Form 5329 waiver instructions and reduced-rate conditions; distinguished direct, eligible and successor beneficiaries and spouse start dates; repaired aggregation, reporting, five-year wording, withholding claims, RMD-age timing and worked-example arithmetic. The earlier account-growth example and blanket advice were removed. Correction record.