• You can take distributions from an inherited IRA.retired purse image by Maria Brzostowska from Fotolia.com
  
  When you inherit an Independent Retirement Account from someone other than your spouse, you cannot treat the account as your own. This means you cannot make contributions to the account, and you cannot rollover the account into your own retirement fund. You can, however, otherwise benefit by taking distributions from the account. The distribution options available to you will depend on several factors.
  
  

Required Distribution Deadline

• An IRA operates with a series of deadlines. One deadline prevents an account holder from making distributions before she reaches the age of 59-1/2. A second deadline mandates the account holder begin taking required minimum distributions after age 70-1/2. Depending on when the account holder passes away, before or after he or she has begun taking distributions, the options for a non-spouse beneficiary will differ.
  
  

Account Holder Dies After RMD Deadline

• If an IRA account holder has already begun taking Required Minimum Distributions, you will have two options for distributions. First, you may continue to take regular distributions based on your life expectancy, which is recalculated each year. The amount of each distribution is calculated by dividing the sum of the money in the account by a number determined by your life expectancy. You must take your first distribution with this option by December in the year following the year the account holder died. The second choice is to inherit the IRA in full in one lump sum and pay taxes all at once.
  
  

Account Holder Dies Before RMD Deadline

• If the account holder dies before he or she began required minimum distributions, you can elect one of two options. The first option is the default option. It requires you to take the account distributions in full within five years of the year following the year of the death of the account holder. This is called the "five-year rule." If you do not make a specific election otherwise, this rule will be applied. You may also choose to begin receiving distributions based on your own life expectancy. This option may be preferable for tax reasons, because you will inherit the money more slowly and have a lower tax burden each year.