Inherited IRA RMD Calculator
With balance on 31 december last year 400000 usd, your age in the first distribution year 55, which distribution year is this 1, your income tax rate 24 percent, inherited ira rmd comes to $12,658 — minimum you must take this year. It is reached in 9 steps, the last of which is ((12658.228)), and each one is printed on the page with its numbers filled in. The formula is the one published by 26 CFR §1.401(a)(9)-9, not an approximation fitted to it.
What an inherited IRA must pay out this year, under the life-expectancy method or the ten-year rule, with the deadline the account has to be empty by.
Formula and sources checked · How we check
Balance on 31 December last year 400000, Your age in the first distribution year 55, Which distribution year is this 1, Which rule applies Ten-year rule — most beneficiaries since 2020
$12,658
Minimum you must take this year for the example below. Editing a field recomputes the calculator below; this figure holds the answer the page was loaded with.
It is written into the HTML rather than drawn by a script, so a search engine reading this page without running JavaScript still finds an answer.
- Single life expectancy at that age
31.6 years- Divisor this year
max(1, 31.6 - (1 - 1))31.6- Withdrawal under the life-expectancy method
400000 / 31.6$12,658- Years left in the ten-year window
max(0, 11 - 1)10- Even split to empty it in time
400000 / 10$40,000- Minimum you must take this year
((12658.228))$12,658- Income tax on that, at your rate
12658.228 * 24 / 100$3,038- What lands in your bank
12658.228 - 3037.9747$9,620- Excise tax if you skip it
12658.228 * 0.25$3,165
Ask about this in the chatCompare: whether the owner had started
Worked example
A 55-year-old inheriting $400,000 from someone who had already begun their own withdrawals must take $12,658 this year — the balance over a single life expectancy of 31.6 — and the account has to be empty by the end of year ten, which an even split puts at $40,000 a year. At 24% the tax on this year’s withdrawal is $3,038.
How to work it out yourself
- 1.Use your own age in the first distribution year, not the age of the person who died, and not your age now. That first figure sets the divisor for every year afterwards.
- 2.Subtract one from the divisor each year rather than looking the table up again. Looking it up again gives a bigger divisor and a smaller withdrawal, which is the mistake the IRS notices.
- 3.The ten-year rule and the annual withdrawal are two separate requirements. If the owner had already started their own RMDs, you owe something every year and the account still has to be empty at the end of year ten.
- 4.A surviving spouse has choices nobody else has — treating the account as their own, or delaying until the deceased would have reached 73 — and they usually beat the rules on this page.
What the divisor does over ten years
| Which distribution year is this | Minimum you must take this year | Divisor this year | Withdrawal under the life-expectancy method |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12,658 | 31.6 | $12,658 |
| 2 | $13,072 | 30.6 | $13,072 |
| 3 | $13,514 | 29.6 | $13,514 |
| 4 | $13,986 | 28.6 | $13,986 |
| 5 | $14,493 | 27.6 | $14,493 |
| 6 | $15,038 | 26.6 | $15,038 |
| 7 | $15,625 | 25.6 | $15,625 |
| 8 | $16,260 | 24.6 | $16,260 |
| 9 | $16,949 | 23.6 | $16,949 |
| 10 | $400,000 | 22.6 | $17,699 |
The balance is held at the same figure to show the divisor alone; in life it falls as you withdraw.
The formula
- Single life expectancy at that age
- Divisor this year
max(1, 31.6 - (1 - 1)) - Withdrawal under the life-expectancy method
400000 / 31.6 - Years left in the ten-year window
max(0, 11 - 1) - Even split to empty it in time
400000 / 10 - Minimum you must take this year
((12658.228)) - Income tax on that, at your rate
12658.228 * 24 / 100 - What lands in your bank
12658.228 - 3037.9747 - Excise tax if you skip it
12658.228 * 0.25
Source: 26 CFR §1.401(a)(9)-9 — Single Life Table, IRS — Retirement plan and IRA required minimum distributions FAQs, IRS Publication 590-B — Distributions from IRAs, including inherited accounts
Questions people actually ask
- What is the ten-year rule?
- For most beneficiaries of owners who died after 2019, the whole account must be emptied by the last day of the tenth year after the death. Since the 2024 final regulations, if the owner had already begun their own RMDs you must also take a withdrawal in each of years one to nine — the ten-year deadline and the annual minimum are separate requirements, and missing either carries the same penalty.
- Who can still use the life-expectancy method?
- Eligible designated beneficiaries: a surviving spouse, a minor child of the owner until 21, someone disabled or chronically ill, and anyone not more than ten years younger than the owner. Everyone else inherits the ten-year clock.
- Why does the divisor go down by one each year?
- Because the life expectancy is fixed at the first distribution year and then reduced, rather than re-read from the table. Re-reading gives a larger divisor, a smaller withdrawal and a shortfall the IRS taxes at 25%. Only a surviving spouse who keeps the account as an inherited IRA re-reads the table each year.
- Does a Roth IRA I inherited have RMDs?
- Yes. The owner never had to take them, but a beneficiary does: an inherited Roth is emptied under the same ten-year rule. The withdrawals are tax-free if the account was open five years, which is why the tax line above should be set to zero for one.
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