The required distributions you must receive when you inherit an IRA as a beneficiary depend on various factors, including whether you are a surviving spouse or other beneficiary, how old you are, and whether the deceased owner was taking distributions.
Surviving Spouse
If you are the surviving spouse and you choose to treat the IRA you inherit as your own, you will need to determine if you are required to take a minimum required distribution. You would make this determination the year in which you elect to be treated as the owner of the IRA you inherit.
If you become the owner the year your spouse died, you do not have to determine the minimum required distribution for that year based on your life (your age) as indicated below. Instead, you can take your deceased spouse’s required minimum distribution, if applicable, for the year, to the extent it was not already taken. This will generally depend on whether the owner had reached age 70 ½. The required beginning date is April 1 of the year after the owner of the IRA reaches age 70 ½. If the owner dies after reaching age 70 ½ but before April 1st of the next year, there is no required minimum distribution because the required beginning date has not yet been reached.
Required Distributions Based on When the Owner Died
If the owner died on or after his or her required beginning date to start receiving distributions, and you are the beneficiary, your minimum distributions for years following the IRA owner’s death are determined based on the longer of:
Your single life expectancy based on your age, according to Table I, Single Life Expectancy For Use By Beneficiaries, which is included in Appendix C of IRS Publication 590 Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), or
The owner’s life expectancy.
If the owner died before his or her required beginning date to start receiving distributions, generally you would use your single life expectancy (Table I) as the basis for determining your minimum required distributions.
Your required minimum distribution for the year is calculated by taking the IRA account balance at the end of the previous year and dividing it by your life expectancy based on your age according to Table I as mentioned above.
But if you are a surviving spouse and are the sole beneficiary, you do not have to take a minimum required distribution until the year in which your deceased spouse would have reached age 70 ½, if he or she died before reaching that age. If you choose to treat the IRA as your own, you would not have to take a minimum required distribution until you reach age 70 ½.