Year of Death RMD for inherited IRA

Submitted by Chris Farrell on Mon, 2017-11-20 20:46

We are inheriting an IRA from my father-in-law who was 75 and taking RMDs (though he did miss a few).

The IRS website and older posts in this forum say we calculate the RMD for this year (year of death) based on his information, and use beneficiary age/lifespan information for all future years. However, my sister-in-law says her accountant and her financial adviser say this is wrong, that the law has changed, and beneficiary information is used even in the year of death.

I would love to actually see the current tax code that answers this question but I’m having a hard time looking it up.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.



Submitted by William Tuttle on Tue, 2017-11-21 00:21

  • The rules governing the year of death RMD and beneficiary RMDs for the year folowing the year of death have not changed in 15 years. 
  • This is clearly spelled out in IRS publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), Figuring the Owner’s Required Minimum Distribution, Distributions in the year of the owner’s death, page 8:
  • If the owner died on or after the required beginning date, the IRA beneficiaries are responsible for figuring and distributing the owner’s required minimum distribution in the year of death.
  • The owner’s required minimum distribution for the year of death generally is based on Table III (Uniform Lifetime) in Appendix B. However, if the sole beneficiary of the IRA is the owner’s spouse who is more than 10 years younger than the owner, use the life expectancy from Table II (Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy).
  • Maybe your sister-in-law should consider getting an accountant and a financial adviser who know what they are talking about.


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