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

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25% of the amount that should have been withdrawn but was not, paid by the beneficiary. The rate drops to 10% when the missed amount is withdrawn from the same plan and a return reflecting the tax is filed, both inside the correction window, which ends at the earliest of a notice of deficiency, an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.