An independent inherited-IRA planner, built for the current rules.

Who runs this

10yearrmd.com is published by Red Goggles LLC, an independent operator of free web calculators and reference tools. We are not a bank, broker, custodian, financial advisor, or government agency, and we are not affiliated with the IRS. We don't sell financial products, we don't collect leads, and we don't take your information — the calculator runs on your device and nothing you type is sent to us.

Why this site exists

The SECURE Act replaced the old lifetime “stretch IRA” with a 10-year drain rule for most people who inherit a retirement account from someone who died on or after January 1, 2020. The rule is genuinely confusing: whether you owe annual RMDs in years 1–9 depends on whether the original owner had reached their Required Beginning Date, five categories of Eligible Designated Beneficiary escape the rule entirely, and the IRS waived the annual-RMD requirement for 2021–2024 before reinstating it for 2025. Most calculators online were built for the pre-2020 stretch rules and give wrong answers. Being correct for the current rules is the entire reason this tool exists.

How it's calculated

The planner applies the published federal rules, in the open:

• The 10-year deadline — December 31 of the tenth year after the year of the original owner's death, per the SECURE Act and the IRS final regulations.
• The pre-RBD / post-RBD test — if the owner had reached their Required Beginning Date (age 73 under current law, moving to 75 for those reaching it in 2033 or later under SECURE 2.0), the “at-least-as-rapidly” rule requires annual RMDs in years 1–9 based on the beneficiary's single life expectancy.
• Eligible Designated Beneficiary categories — surviving spouse, minor child of the decedent, disabled, chronically ill, and beneficiaries not more than 10 years younger than the owner, each with its own distribution rule.
• Federal income tax — distributions are modeled against 2026 federal ordinary-income brackets to compare equal pacing, tax-optimized pacing, and waiting until year 10.

The rules behind these figures come from the IRS RMD guidance, IRS Publication 590-B (including its life-expectancy tables), and IRS Notices 2022-53, 2023-54, and 2024-35 (the 2021–2024 waivers). You can see the rule explained in plain English on the calculator page.

How we stay neutral and current

We model the rules as the IRS has published them and state the history factually — the SECURE Act (2019), the surprising proposed regulations (2022), the waiver notices (2022–2024), the final regulations in force from 2025, and the RBD shift to age 75 in 2033. We don't give opinions on whether the rules are fair. RMD tables and federal brackets update periodically; we revise the figures as the IRS publishes them. Every page carries a “not tax advice” note and links to the primary IRS sources so you can verify the numbers yourself.

How the site is funded

10yearrmd.com is free and supported by display advertising. Advertising is kept calm and never mixes with your inputs — see our privacy page for exactly what is and isn't collected.

Questions or corrections? We take accuracy seriously on a topic this consequential — reach us on the contact page.