When Does a Surviving Spouse Have to Withdraw an Inherited Roth IRA?

A surviving spouse who inherits a Roth IRA is an eligible designated beneficiary: the spouse may take withdrawals over life expectancy and, as the sole beneficiary, treat the account as the spouse's own; a missed amount carries a 25% tax.

Account Type

Traditional IRA

Includes SEP and SIMPLE IRAs

Roth IRA

Employer plan

401(k), 403(b), or governmental 457(b)

Account Owner's Date of Birth (MM/DD/YYYY)

Account Owner's Date of Death (MM/DD/YYYY)

Your Relationship to the Owner

Surviving spouseChild of the owner

Another individual

Grandchild, sibling, partner, friend

A trust

The account names a trust as beneficiary

Estate or charity

No individual is named, or a charity is

See which withdrawal rules apply

Select the account type, enter the owner's dates of birth and death, and answer the questions about your relationship to the owner.

Examples:

Deadline year by which the account must be emptied

Annual withdrawals and whether they are required

First-year dates and the tax for a missed withdrawal

General information about the federal distribution rules for an inherited retirement account, not tax or legal advice. The rules are applied as written in the Internal Revenue Code, the Treasury regulations and IRS guidance to the answers given. Plan documents, state income tax and facts not asked here can change the outcome. Consult a licensed tax professional for tax questions.

Yes, when the spouse is the sole beneficiary and has an unlimited right to withdraw. A trust named as beneficiary does not qualify even if the spouse is its sole beneficiary. The election is made by redesignating the account in the spouse's name as owner, and it is deemed made if the spouse misses a required beneficiary withdrawal for a year after the year of death or makes a contribution to the account. An IRA acquired by the surviving spouse is not an "inherited" IRA under the Code, so the rollover rules are not denied to the spouse.

A surviving spouse who is the sole beneficiary may delay the start of life expectancy payments until the end of the calendar year in which the owner would have reached the applicable age. If the spouse dies before distributions begin, the rules are applied as if the spouse were the owner, with the spouse's date of death substituted.

The regulation applies them as though the Roth IRA owner died before the required beginning date, whatever the owner's age. For a designated beneficiary who is not an eligible designated beneficiary, that means the 10-year rule with no withdrawal required in the intervening years; an eligible designated beneficiary may take annual life expectancy payments.

Only when the owner died on or after the required beginning date: the annual distribution requirement then continues for every year until the account is empty, with the 10-year deadline on top. For a death before that date, the regulation requires only that the account be emptied by the end of the deadline year. The regulations apply to calendar years beginning in 2025.

25% of the amount that should have been withdrawn but was not, paid by the beneficiary. The rate drops to 10% when the missed amount is withdrawn from the same plan and a return reflecting the tax is filed, both inside the correction window, which ends at the earliest of a notice of deficiency, an assessment, or the last day of the second taxable year after the year the tax applies to. The IRS may waive the tax for reasonable error on a Form 5329 request, and the regulation waives it automatically in two cases.