3690 / What distribution requirements apply to an IRA that is inherited by a surviving spouse?
Editor’s Note: Under the SECURE Act 2.0, surviving spouses can elect to be treated in the same manner as the deceased spouse for account purposes beginning in 2024. That means required minimum distributions (RMDs) from the account will not begin until they would have begun for the deceased spouse (age 73 or 75, depending on the deceased spouse’s date of birth). Once RMDs begin under this option, they are calculated using the uniform life table (instead of the single life expectancy table, which is currently the table used to calculate RMDs for a beneficiary). In cases where a surviving spouse dies before RMDs begin (based on the first-to-die spouse’s RMD start date), the surviving spouse’s beneficiaries will then be treated as they were beneficiaries of the original owner. That means it will be possible for those beneficiaries to be classified as eligible designated beneficiaries for purposes of the original SECURE Act’s RMD rules.
While a surviving spouse may elect to treat an inherited IRA in the same manner as a non-spousal beneficiary (see Q 3691), a surviving spouse of an IRA owner who is the sole beneficiary of an IRA and who has an unlimited right to make withdrawals from the IRA may also elect to treat the entire account as his or her own IRA. This election can be made at any time after the IRA owner’s death.1 Post-SECURE Act, surviving spouses qualify as eligible designated beneficiaries (EDBs), so the pre-SECURE Act distribution rules continue to apply. Under regulations proposed in 2022, spousal beneficiaries will be required to elect to treat the deceased spouse’s IRA as their own by the later of (1) December 31 of the year following the year of the owner’s death or (2) age 72 or 73 (their required beginning date).
Under regulations proposed in 2022, spousal beneficiaries would have been required to elect to treat the deceased spouse’s IRA as their own by the later of (1) December 31 of the year following the year of the owner’s death or (2) the date they reached their required beginning date. The final regulations eliminated this deadline, giving surviving spouses added flexibility.