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Owner Died Before Required Beginning Date: IRA Withdrawals (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Owner Died Before Required Beginning Date” within ira withdrawals. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

The rules for determining required minimum distributions for beneficiaries depend on whether:

  • The beneficiary is the surviving spouse.

  • The beneficiary is an eligible designated beneficiary (defined later) other than the surviving spouse.

  • The beneficiary is an individual (other than an eligible designated beneficiary).

  • The beneficiary isn't an individual (for example, the beneficiary is the owner's estate). (But see Trust as beneficiary, later, for a discussion about treating trust beneficiaries as designated beneficiaries.)

  • The IRA owner died before the required beginning date, or died on or after the required beginning date.

The following paragraphs explain the rules for required minimum distributions and beneficiaries.

Owner Died Before Required Beginning Date

If the owner died before their required beginning date (defined earlier) and you are an eligible designated beneficiary (such as and including a surviving spouse who is a sole survivor), you must generally figure your required minimum distributions for the year after the year of the owner's death using your single life expectancy shown in Table I.

However, if you are the surviving spouse, use Table III if you elect to treat the IRA as your own. See Inherited from spouse under What if You Inherit an IRA, earlier, for more information.

For each subsequent calendar year, if you are not the surviving spouse, the applicable denominator is reduced by one for each calendar year that has elapsed after the calendar year following the employee's death. If you are the owner's surviving spouse, then the applicable denominator continues to be determined each subsequent year, using either Table I or Table III.

However, there are situations where a beneficiary may be required to take the entire account balance by the end of the 10th year following the year of the owner's death. See 10-year rule, later.

If the owner’s beneficiary isn’t an individual (for example, if the beneficiary is the owner’s estate), the 5-year rule, discussed later, applies.

Special rules for surviving spouse.

If the owner died before their required beginning date and the surviving spouse is the sole designated beneficiary, that spouse can elect to be treated as the IRA owner.

Year of first required distribution.

If the owner died before the year in which they were required to begin receiving required minimum distributions and the surviving spouse is the IRA owner’s sole beneficiary, the spouse isn’t required to begin receiving minimum distributions until the end of the year in which the IRA owner would have reached their required beginning date. See Your required beginning date for more information.

Death of surviving spouse prior to date distributions begin.

If the surviving spouse dies before December 31 of the year they must begin receiving required minimum distributions, the surviving spouse will be treated as if they were the owner of the IRA.

This rule doesn't apply to the surviving spouse of a surviving spouse.

Example 1.

Your spouse died in 2022, at age 65. You are the sole designated beneficiary of your spouse’s traditional IRA. You don't need to take any required minimum distributions until December 31 of 2030, the year your spouse would have reached age 73. If you die prior to that date, you will be treated as the owner of the IRA for purposes of determining the required distributions to your beneficiaries. For example, if you die in 2025, your beneficiaries won't have any required minimum distributions for 2025 (because you, treated as the owner, died prior to your required beginning date). Your beneficiaries must start taking distributions under the general rules for an owner who died prior to the required beginning date.

Example 2.

The facts are the same as in Example 1, except your sole beneficiary upon your death in 2025 is your surviving spouse. Your surviving spouse can't wait until the year you would have turned age 73 to take distributions using their life expectancy. Also, if your surviving spouse dies prior to the date they are required to take a distribution, they aren’t treated as the owner of the account. Just like any other individual beneficiary of an owner who dies before the required beginning date, your surviving spouse must start taking distributions in 2026 based on their life expectancy (or elect to fully distribute the account under the 10-year rule by the end of 2035).

5-year rule.

The 5-year rule requires the IRA beneficiaries who are not taking life expectancy payments to withdraw the entire balance of the IRA by December 31 of the year containing the fifth anniversary of the owner’s death. For example, if the owner died in 2025, the beneficiary would have to fully distribute the IRA by December 31, 2030.

The 5-year rule applies to beneficiaries who are not designated beneficiaries if the owner died before their required beginning date (such as an estate or trust (but see Trust as beneficiary, later)). Before 2020, the 5-year rule also applied to designated beneficiaries who weren’t taking life expectancy payments. If the owner died after 2019 and the beneficiary is an individual who is a designated beneficiary, see the 10-year rule, for more information.

10-year rule.

The 10-year rule requires the IRA beneficiaries who are not taking life expectancy payments to withdraw the entire balance of the IRA by December 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the owner’s death. For example, if the owner died in 2025, the beneficiary would have to fully distribute the IRA by December 31, 2035.

The 10-year rule applies if (1) the beneficiary is an eligible designated beneficiary who elects the 10-year rule, if the owner died before reaching their required beginning date; or (2) the beneficiary is a designated beneficiary who is not an eligible designated beneficiary, regardless of whether the owner died before reaching their required beginning date.

For a beneficiary receiving life expectancy payments who is either an eligible designated beneficiary or a minor child, the 10-year rule also applies to the remaining amounts in the IRA upon the death of the eligible designated beneficiary or upon the minor child beneficiary reaching the age of majority. In either of those cases, the 10-year period ends on December 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the eligible designated beneficiary's death or the child's attainment of majority.

Payment under the 10-year rule.

If the IRA owner dies before the required beginning date and the 10-year rule applies, no distribution is required for any year before the 10th year.

Individual designated beneficiaries.

The terms of most IRAs require individual designated beneficiaries, who are eligible designated beneficiaries, to take required minimum distributions using the life expectancy rules (explained later) unless such beneficiaries elect to take distributions using the 10-year rule.

The deadline for making this election is the earlier of December 31 of the year the beneficiary must take the first required distribution, using their life expectancy or December 31 of the 10th anniversary for the 10-year rule.

If the individual designated beneficiary is not an eligible designated beneficiary, the beneficiary is required to fully distribute the IRA by the 10th anniversary of the owner's death under the 10-year rule.

Tip:

Review the IRA plan documents or consult with the IRA custodian or trustee for specifics on the 5- or 10-year rule provisions, where applicable, of any particular IRA.

Caution:

If the 5-year rule applies, the amount remaining in the IRA, if any, after December 31 of the year containing the fifth anniversary of the owner's death is subject to the excise tax detailed in Excess Accumulations (Insufficient Distributions), later.

Caution:

If the 10-year rule applies, the amount remaining in the IRA, if any, after December 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the owner's death is subject to the excise tax detailed in Excess Accumulations (Insufficient Distributions), later.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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