A Widow Who Inherits a $2 Million IRA at 70 Faces an $80,000 RMD at 73 as a Single Filer. Converting $100,000 a Year in the Three Years Between Keeps the Rest Under 24% for Life

He handled the money. When he died the year she turned 69, the paperwork fell to her: a traditional IRA with her name on the beneficiary form. By December 31 of the year she turned 70, the account was renamed to her and held $2 million.

She lives on Social Security of $1,936 a month, the average for an senior widow living alone. She files as single now. Nobody told her that three years later the IRS would require about $80,000 a year from that account, and that the required amount would keep going up into her 80s.

Spousal Election Starts Her RMD Clock at 73

IRS Publication 590-B allows a surviving spouse who is the sole designated beneficiary treat the inherited IRA as her own. Once she does, her withdrawals follow the Table III Uniform Lifetime schedule, the same one every IRA owner uses. Section 107 of the SECURE 2.0 Act set the starting age for required minimum distributions (RMDs) at age 73, for taxpayers born on or after January 1, 1951. She was born in 1956, so her first RMD is due for the year she turns 73.

Each RMD equals the prior December 31 balance divided by a factor from the table: 26.5 at 73, 20.2 at 80 and 10.8 at 92. As the factor gets smaller, a larger share of the balance has to come out each year.

How $2 Million Turns Into an $80,000 Withdrawal

Assume the account earns 3% a year after inflation. That keeps every figure in today’s dollars and allows the 2026 brackets apply, because the brackets are indexed to inflation. If she leaves the IRA alone, it grows to $2,121,800 by the end of the year she turns 72. Divided by 26.5, that gives a first RMD of $80,068.

Her limit is set by the 2026 single-filer brackets. The 24% rate starts above $105,700 of taxable income, and the standard deduction is $16,100. At her income level, the taxable share of Social Security reaches its cap of 85% of the social security benefits received under 26 U.S.C. § 86(a)(2)(B). That makes $19,747 of her $23,232 in benefits taxable. The most IRA income she can report and still stay in the 22% bracket is $102,053. That figure leaves out the extra deductions for filers 65 and older, which only add more room.

Without any planning, her RMDs rise to $95,435 at 80 and $101,491 at 83. At 84 the RMD is $103,914, which pushes part of it into the 24% bracket. It tops out at $112,500 at 92, when $10,447 of that year’s withdrawal is taxed at 24%.

Three $100,000 Conversions Keep Every Future RMD at 22%

Under 26 U.S.C. § 408A(d)(3)(A)(i), the amount moved into a Roth IRA is included in gross income for the year of the conversion. She converts $100,000 in each of the three years she is 70, 71 and 72. Each year her taxable income comes to $103,647, just below the 24% line. Her total federal tax is $17,514 a year, or $52,543 across the three years, and none of it is taxed above 22%.

After the conversions, the traditional IRA holds $1,812,710 going into age 73. Its RMDs top out at $96,112, which remains below the $102,053 limit for her entire life.

The $300,000 she converted sits in a Roth IRA, which has no required withdrawals while she is alive. Her adult children inherit it under the 10-year rule, which requires them to empty it by December 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the owner’s death, and qualified withdrawals come out tax-free.

There is one side effect. Income above $109,000 raises her Part B premium to $284.10 a month from $202.90, with the increase applying two years after each conversion year.

Four Moves to Make Before the First RMD

1. Confirm the spousal election in writing. Have the custodian rename the account as her own IRA instead of an inherited IRA. Ask whether her husband had reached his required beginning date and whether his RMD for the year he died was taken.
2. Run a draft Form 1040 every fall. Size each conversion so taxable income lands just under the 24% threshold for that year, which moves up with inflation.
3. Finish each conversion by December 31. Pay the tax from a taxable account so the full $100,000 reaches the Roth.
4. Update both beneficiary forms. Name the children directly on the traditional IRA and on the new Roth. These forms control who gets the money regardless of what the will says.

Once RMDs begin at 73, the RMD itself cannot be converted, and it uses up most of her room in the 22% bracket, so the low-tax window effectively closes. Those low-tax years between the last paycheck and the first required withdrawal are the whole subject of our free Roth conversion guide, if you want to see how the math looks at other balances. An estate tax attorney or CPA can adjust these figures for her state taxes and any other income she has.

Remember the $102,053 Ceiling

For a single widow living on average Social Security in 2026, $102,053 is the most IRA income she can take before any of it is taxed at 24%. Three $100,000 conversions between 70 and 72 keep every RMD she will ever owe below that line.

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