Inherited IRAs Have a Hard 10-Year Deadline — Plan Now or Face a Tax Squeeze

Non-spouse heirs of traditional IRAs must now withdraw the entire balance within 10 years of death, compressing what was once a lifetime distribution into a compressed window. For those who inherited in 2022, the deadline is 2032. The squeeze matters: larger distributions accelerate tax liability into fewer years, pushing heirs into higher brackets. Strategic withdrawal timing across the decade can reduce the total tax hit, but requires early modeling against income projections.