Do Inherited Roth IRAs Have RMDs? Spouse and Non-Spouse Rules

Inherited Roth IRA RMD rules depend entirely on your relationship to the person who died. A surviving spouse can avoid distributions during their lifetime. Most other beneficiaries have ten years to empty the account but owe no annual withdrawals along the way. A small group of eligible beneficiaries can still stretch distributions over their own life expectancy, and that is the only situation that produces genuine annual required minimum distributions.

Which Beneficiary Group You Fall Into

The SECURE Act, effective January 1, 2020, sorted beneficiaries into three groups. Your group decides your timeline.

Surviving spouse. The most options and the most flexibility. Only a spouse can treat an inherited Roth IRA as their own.

Eligible designated beneficiary. A narrow group that keeps access to the life expectancy stretch: a minor child of the deceased owner (not a grandchild or stepchild), anyone who is disabled or chronically ill, and any individual who is not more than ten years younger than the deceased owner. A minor child qualifies only until age 21, at which point their ten-year clock begins.

Designated beneficiary. Everyone else named individually on the account. Adult children, grandchildren, siblings, friends. These beneficiaries must empty the account within ten years.

Spouse Options

A surviving spouse has three paths.

Treat It as Your Own

The spouse rolls the assets into their own existing Roth IRA or redesignates the inherited account under their own name. The account stops being an inherited IRA. No distributions are required during the spouse’s lifetime, and the assets keep growing tax-free.¹

This is usually the best choice for a spouse who doesn’t need the money soon. The tradeoff: if the spouse is under 59½, later withdrawals of earnings from what is now their own Roth IRA can trigger the 10% early withdrawal penalty.

Keep It as Inherited, With Life Expectancy Distributions

The spouse can maintain the account as an inherited Roth IRA and take distributions based on their own life expectancy using the IRS Single Life Expectancy Table. Unlike other beneficiaries, a surviving spouse recalculates using their actual current age each year rather than reducing the factor by one annually.²

Because a Roth IRA owner is always treated as having died before their required beginning date, a spouse using this method can delay distributions until the year the deceased owner would have turned 73.¹ This route appeals to a younger spouse who wants access to funds without the 10% early withdrawal penalty. Distributions from an inherited Roth IRA are penalty-free regardless of the beneficiary’s age.

Keep It as Inherited, Under the Ten-Year Rule

The spouse can instead elect the ten-year rule. The full balance must be distributed by December 31 of the tenth year after the owner’s death, but no annual withdrawals are required in the meantime.¹ Maximum timing flexibility, no early withdrawal penalty.

The Ten-Year Rule for Most Non-Spouse Beneficiaries

If you’re an adult child, grandchild, sibling, friend, or any other individual who doesn’t qualify as an eligible designated beneficiary, the ten-year rule is your only path. The entire balance of the inherited Roth IRA must be distributed by December 31 of the tenth calendar year following the year of the owner’s death.¹ If the owner died in 2024, the account must be empty by the end of 2034.

Here is the key point for anyone worrying about annual RMDs: there are none. Because a Roth IRA owner is always treated as having died before their required beginning date, no distributions are required during years one through nine. The only hard requirement is that the balance hits zero by that final December 31.¹ Take a little each year, nothing for nine years and then a lump sum, or any pattern in between. That flexibility lets the assets compound tax-free for up to a full decade.

Inherited traditional IRAs are stricter. When the original owner had already started RMDs, the beneficiary must take annual distributions during those same nine years. The inherited Roth sidesteps that.

Annual RMDs for Eligible Designated Beneficiaries

If you qualify as an eligible designated beneficiary, you can stretch distributions over your own life expectancy. This is the only scenario where an inherited Roth IRA produces genuine annual RMDs. The calculation uses the IRS Single Life Expectancy Table: divide the prior year-end account balance by your life expectancy factor, then reduce that factor by one each following year.¹

An eligible designated beneficiary can also elect the ten-year rule if that suits their planning better. The default under the regulations is the life expectancy method, which usually preserves the tax-free growth window longer.

Minor Children

A minor child of the deceased owner qualifies as an eligible designated beneficiary only until age 21. There is no student exception extending this to age 26, despite what some older guidance suggested. Once the child turns 21, the ten-year clock starts immediately, and the account must be emptied by December 31 of the tenth year after they reach 21.³

Disabled and Chronically Ill Beneficiaries

A beneficiary who is disabled or chronically ill keeps eligible designated beneficiary status for life and can stretch distributions over their full life expectancy. Documentation matters. A Social Security Administration disability determination is the clearest way to establish this status, especially for adult beneficiaries.

The Five-Year Holding Period on Earnings

Distributions of contributions from an inherited Roth IRA are always tax-free and penalty-free. Earnings are tax-free only if the original owner’s Roth IRA met the five-year holding period. That clock starts on January 1 of the tax year the owner first funded any Roth IRA, and it carries over to the beneficiary. It does not restart when you inherit.³

If the owner opened their first Roth IRA in 2022 and died in 2025, the five-year period hasn’t been met yet. A beneficiary withdrawing earnings before 2027 would owe income tax on those earnings. After 2027, distributions become fully tax-free. Most inherited Roth IRAs have been open well past five years, so this rarely creates a problem. If you’re inheriting a recently opened Roth IRA, check the date before withdrawing more than the contribution basis.

Penalty for Missing a Deadline

Missing a required distribution triggers a 25% excise tax on the amount that should have been withdrawn but wasn’t.⁴ This applies whether you missed an annual life expectancy payment or failed to empty the account by the ten-year deadline. On a $200,000 balance left past the deadline, that’s a $50,000 penalty.

The tax drops to 10% if you correct the shortfall within the correction window, which generally runs through the end of the second tax year after the year the penalty was imposed.⁴ Take the missed distribution, file Form 5329 with your tax return, and pay the reduced 10% rate.

The IRS can also waive the penalty entirely if the shortfall was due to reasonable error and you’ve taken steps to fix it. File Form 5329, attach a written explanation, and enter “RC” on the dotted line next to the penalty calculation.⁵ The IRS reviews these case by case and notifies you if the waiver is denied.

When the Beneficiary Isn’t an Individual

If the beneficiary is an estate, charity, or non-qualifying trust, the ten-year rule doesn’t apply. The account falls back to pre-SECURE Act rules, and the entire balance must be distributed by the end of the fifth year following the year of the owner’s death.³ No annual distributions are required before that fifth-year deadline.

Trusts named as beneficiaries follow the same five-year rule unless they qualify as “see-through” trusts, in which case the IRS looks through to the individual beneficiaries underneath. The qualification rules are technical and fact-specific, so anyone whose Roth IRA names a trust should consult an estate planning attorney.

Deaths Before 2020

If the original Roth IRA owner died before January 1, 2020, the SECURE Act changes don’t apply. Beneficiaries of those accounts can continue taking distributions over their own life expectancy under the old stretch rules, regardless of their relationship to the deceased owner.¹

1
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
2
Internal Revenue Service. Required Minimum Distributions for IRA Beneficiaries
3
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Beneficiary
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4974 – Excise Tax on Certain Accumulations in Qualified Plans
5
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5329 (2025)