Qualified Disclaimer 2026: Section 2518, 9-Month Rule, IRAs

The five tests, and what breaks each one

Section 2518(b) is short. The regulation fills it in, and the regulation is where most disclaimers fail. The table puts the Code and the regulation side by side with the commonest way to fail.

Source: 26 U.S.C. 2518(b) and 26 CFR 25.2518-1, 25.2518-2, Legal Information Institute (Cornell Law School), read October 26, 2026. The right-hand column is our reading and not a citation.

Two details matter more than they look. First, the statute names who must receive the writing, and the IRS is not on the list; nothing in 2518 or 25.2518-2 asks you to file the disclaimer with the IRS (our reading of the text). Second, “timely mailing” counts: a mailed disclaimer is “treated as a timely delivery if the mailing requirements under paragraphs (c)(1), (c)(2) and (d) of § 301.7502-1 are met” (25.2518-2(c)(2)). Whether to rely on that, instead of hand delivery with a receipt, is a question for the lawyer who drafts it.

The 9-month calendar with real dates

Nine months run from the transfer, and the regulation fixes the transfer for a death at the date of death. Three hypothetical deaths show how the date falls. The dates are our arithmetic using calendar months; the weekend rule is from 25.2518-2(c)(2).

Source: our arithmetic from 26 CFR 25.2518-2(c)(1) and (c)(2); days of the week from the calendar. Legal holidays are defined by § 301.7503-1(b), which the regulation cites; we did not check each date against that list.

The last row is not a coincidence. We tested every date of death in 2026 and none gives a 9-month date later than September 30, 2027 before any weekend extension (our arithmetic). So for a 2026 death the September 30 date in the retirement-account rule is not the binding deadline for a disclaimer: the 9 months end on or before it. The other consequence is practical. A person who reads the September 30 date as the deadline and waits until August of the following year to disclaim a March death has missed the date by months, and the regulation says that is not saved by the September 30 rule (see the IRA section below).

Two other clocks change the start date:

• A beneficiary under 21. “A beneficiary who is under 21 years of age has until 9 months after his twenty-first birthday” (25.2518-2(d)(3)), and anything done for the child before then is not acceptance by the child. The statute says the same: the later of the transfer or the day the person “attains age 21” (2518(b)(2)(B)).
• Joint property. For a survivorship interest the 9 months run from the first death, “regardless of whether such interest can be unilaterally severed under local law,” and the interest is “deemed to be a one-half interest” (25.2518-2(c)(4)(i)). For a joint bank or brokerage account where the first owner could take the money back alone, “the surviving joint tenant may not disclaim any portion of the joint account attributable to consideration furnished by that surviving joint tenant” (25.2518-2(c)(4)(iii)).

Acceptance: the step people take without noticing

The rule is not to do nothing at all; it is to do nothing that treats the property as yours. The regulation says “acceptance is manifested by an affirmative act which is consistent with ownership of the interest in property.” It gives these as examples of acceptance: “using the property,” “accepting dividends, interest, or rents from the property,” and “directing others to act with respect to the property or interest in property” (25.2518-2(d)(1)). It also lists things that are not acceptance:

• “Merely taking delivery of an instrument of title.”
• Title vesting in you at death under local law: you are “not considered to have accepted property merely because” of that.
• A resident joint tenant living in the house before disclaiming (25.2518-2(d)(1)).
• Paying property tax out of your own pocket: “Merely paying the property taxes does not constitute an acceptance of Blackacre” (25.2518-2(d)(4), Example 3).
• An executor who is also a beneficiary acting “to preserve or maintain the disclaimed property” (25.2518-2(d)(2)).

And these are acceptance:

• Asking the executor to sell: “By requesting the executor to sell the farm B accepted the farm even though the executor may not have been legally obligated to comply with B’s request” (25.2518-2(d)(4), Example 4).
• Taking any payment for the refusal: “the acceptance of any consideration in return for making the disclaimer is an acceptance of the benefits of the entire interest disclaimed” (25.2518-2(d)(1)). Example 2 in the same paragraph is a promise to let the disclaimant live in the family home for life.
• Taking trust income and then trying to disclaim the income. The regulation’s Example 1 says the income disclaimer fails, while “B’s disclaimer of the principal, however, does satisfy section 2518(b)(3).” Acceptance of one interest does not by itself taint “other separate interests” (25.2518-2(d)(1)).

For a retirement account, the practical reading (ours; the regulation does not mention IRAs) is that a withdrawal, a rollover or a transfer to an inherited IRA in your name is an affirmative act consistent with ownership. Do not make any of them before the lawyer has decided whether to disclaim, and ask the custodian in writing to freeze the account if it will not otherwise stay still.

Who gets the asset: IRA, insurance, house, brokerage account

A qualified disclaimer does not move property to a person you pick. Under the Code the property passes “without any direction on the part of the person making the disclaimer,” and the regulation adds that if “there is an express or implied agreement that the disclaimed interest in property is to be given or bequeathed to a person specified by the disclaimant, the disclaimant shall be treated as directing the transfer” (25.2518-2(e)(1)). The next taker comes from the document or the statute.

Source: 26 CFR 25.2518-2(c), (e); the other columns are our reading and are not a citation. “Predeceased” treatment depends on state law; the regulation’s Example 2 assumes it, and Example 3 shows the result when the state has no such provision.

The traps are in the cases where the disclaimant is also an heir. The regulation’s Example 1 has a son who disclaims the family home, but the will sends disclaimed property into the residuary estate, of which he owns half. Result: the disclaimer works “only with respect to the 50 percent portion that passes solely to C,” because his own residuary share rises by 50 percent of the home’s value. If he had also disclaimed the residuary share, the disclaimer of the whole home would have worked (25.2518-2(e)(5), Example 1). Subsection (e)(3) states the general rule: when the disclaimant “also has a right to receive such property as an heir at law, residuary beneficiary, or by any other means” and does not disclaim those rights too, the disclaimer is “not a qualified disclaimer with respect to the portion of the disclaimed property which the disclaimant has a right to receive.”

There is a related quirk. Naming the taker inside the disclaimer is direction unless it has no legal effect: “Precatory language in a disclaimer naming takers of disclaimed property will not be considered as directing the redistribution” only “if the applicable State law gives the language no legal effect” (25.2518-2(e)(4)). In Example 9, a will that routes a disclaimed third to E, another to F and another to G, where D disclaims “the interest in which the disclaimed property is designated to pass to E,” fails because D “has effectively directed” it. D could have disclaimed an undivided portion of each instead (Example 10). Do not draft this part yourself.

Disclaiming an inherited IRA, and what happens to the 10-year rule

For a defined contribution plan, 26 U.S.C. 401(a)(9)(H)(i)(I) turns the 5-year rule into a 10-year rule for a designated beneficiary who is not an eligible designated beneficiary; our inherited IRA 10-year rule guide covers the annual-RMD split by date of death. This page covers only what the disclaimer does to the list of beneficiaries.

The regulation says a person is a beneficiary taken into account if, at death, the person is a designated beneficiary “and none of the events described in paragraph (c)(2) … has occurred with respect to that person by September 30 of the calendar year following the calendar year of the employee’s death” (26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-4(c)(1)). One of those events is a beneficiary being treated as having predeceased “pursuant to a qualified disclaimer satisfying section 2518 that applies to the entire interest to which the beneficiary is entitled” (1.401(a)(9)-4(c)(2)(ii)). Three examples in the regulation (paragraph (c)(3)) show the limits:

• Example 1. An employee dies in 2024 and names three children for one-third each. One child disclaims the entire share within 9 months, and “B is disregarded as a beneficiary.”
• Example 2. Same facts, but the disclaimer is executed 10 months after the death. “Even if the disclaimer is executed by September 30 of the calendar year following the calendar year of A’s death, the disclaimer is not a qualified disclaimer (because B does not meet the 9-month requirement of section 2518) and B remains a designated beneficiary of A.”
• Example 3. Same facts, but “in exchange for B’s disclaimer … C transfers C’s interest in real property to B.” Because B received consideration, “it is not a qualified disclaimer.”

That Example 2 matters because shorthand descriptions of the retirement-account rule say that a person who disclaims by September 30 is ignored. Our inherited IRA page says it that way, citing Publication 590-B; the regulation adds the condition that the disclaimer must be a qualified one, which means within 9 months. We did not re-open Publication 590-B for this page.

A worked example with hypothetical numbers

An owner dies in 2026 with a $600,000 IRA. The beneficiary form names one adult child at 100 percent and the child’s two children equally as contingent beneficiaries. The child takes nothing and delivers a signed qualified disclaimer of the whole interest within the 9 months. On our reading of 1.401(a)(9)-4(c)(2)(ii) the child is treated as having died first, and each grandchild’s share is $300,000 (our arithmetic: $600,000 divided by 2). The 10-year clock is not restarted by the disclaimer; the account has to be emptied by December 31, 2036 in the case of a non-eligible beneficiary after a 2026 death, as in our sibling page. Who has to take annual distributions in the years before depends on whether the owner died before the required beginning date; that is on the sibling page, not here.

What can go wrong in this example is only on the documents. If the form named no contingent beneficiary and the account agreement sends the money to the estate, the regulation says that “a person that is not an individual, such as the employee’s estate, is not a designated beneficiary” (1.401(a)(9)-4(b)), and the payout period then follows a different branch. We did not verify any custodian’s default, so that row of the table is marked not verified. The only way to know is to read the form on file with the custodian, which can differ from the copy in the family’s papers.

Inherited annuities and other non-IRA accounts

The same Code section governs every “interest in property,” so a nonqualified annuity or a brokerage account with a beneficiary designation is also a candidate. The tax rules after the disclaimer differ for each; our inherited annuity guide covers what the next taker owes. Whether the disclaimed amount carries the original income tax with it is not addressed by anything we opened (not verified).

The surviving spouse

The statute lets the property pass “to the spouse of the decedent” (2518(b)(4)(A)), which is how a surviving spouse can disclaim into a trust that also benefits that spouse. The regulation adds in 25.2518-2(e)(2): “In the case of a disclaimer made by a decedent’s surviving spouse with respect to property transferred by the decedent, the disclaimer satisfies the requirements of this paragraph (e) if the interest passes as a result of the disclaimer without direction on the part of the surviving spouse either to the surviving spouse or to another person.” The limit follows: a spouse who retains the right to direct the beneficial enjoyment of the disclaimed property “in a transfer that is not subject to Federal estate and gift tax (whether as trustee or otherwise)” is treated as directing it “unless such power is limited by an ascertainable standard.”

In the regulation’s Example 4, a spouse disclaims 30 percent of a marital trust, the will adds that portion to a nonmarital trust, and the spouse has income from both but no power over the corpus; it “satisfies section 2518 (b)(4).” Examples 5 and 7 show a spouse who does have a power. In Example 5 she must also disclaim the power over the portion that moved, in Example 7 a noncumulative right to withdraw “the greater of $5,000 or 5 percent” does not stop the disclaimer.

For the trust planning built on this rule (credit shelter, QTIP, basis and portability), see our credit shelter, QTIP and disclaimer trust guide. For the federal exclusion that makes a surviving spouse’s choice relevant, see our estate tax exemption guide. A spouse who is the sole IRA beneficiary and disclaims also gives up whatever the spouse could have done with the account as owner, such as treating it as their own (our reading; the options a spouse has are not covered by anything we opened for this page).

Partial disclaimers

Section 2518(c)(1) says a disclaimer of an undivided portion of an interest that meets the other requirements “shall be treated as a qualified disclaimer of such portion of the interest.” The regulation sets the form in 25.2518-3(b): the portion “must consist of a fraction or percentage of each and every substantial interest or right owned by the disclaimant in such property and must extend over the entire term of the disclaimant’s interest.” “A disclaimer of some specific rights while retaining other rights … is not a qualified disclaimer of an undivided portion,” and the regulation’s example is a devisee who disclaims the remainder in Blackacre but keeps a life estate.

A pecuniary amount can also be disclaimed under 25.2518-3(c), but then “the amount disclaimed and any income attributable to such amount must be segregated from the portion of the gift or bequest that was not disclaimed.” That is a drafting and bookkeeping job for the estate, and one reason an executor needs the disclaimer well before distributions.

The two ways to split an IRA between heirs are different in practice (our reading). A percentage disclaimer of the share leaves the disclaimant a beneficiary of the rest. Under the regulation quoted above, only a disclaimer “that applies to the entire interest to which the beneficiary is entitled” removes the person from the beneficiary list for the retirement-account rules (1.401(a)(9)-4(c)(2)(ii)); a partial one does not.

Medicaid and creditors

A disclaimer can be an issue for someone who may apply for long-term care coverage within five years. Under 42 U.S.C. 1396p(h)(1), the term “assets” includes “any income or resources which the individual or such individual’s spouse is entitled to but does not receive because of action” by the individual, the spouse, or someone acting for or at the direction of either. The transfer penalty applies when an institutionalized individual “disposes of assets for less than fair market value on or after the look-back date” (1396p(c)(1)(A)), and for other disposals made on or after February 8, 2006, the look-back is “60 months” (1396p(c)(1)(B)(i)). The statute never uses the word “disclaimer,” and we did not open any state Medicaid manual, so whether a state counts a refused inheritance as a transfer is not verified; ask an elder-law attorney before the 9 months run, because the tax rule and the benefits rule can point in opposite directions. Our Medicaid asset protection trust guide covers the look-back itself.

Creditors are a separate question. The regulation says that “a disclaimer that is wholly void or that is voided by the disclaimant’s creditors cannot be a qualified disclaimer” (25.2518-1(c)(2)), even though a disclaimer that is merely voidable by creditors still can be. Whether your state lets a disclaimer defeat a creditor is a matter of state law (not verified).

State law: the federal rule is the floor for tax, not the whole rule

Section 2518 decides whether a disclaimer is respected for the federal estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes. Whether it is effective at all, where it is filed, and who takes depend on local law; the regulation recognizes this in 25.2518-1(c), which says that “actions by the disclaimant which are required under local law merely to divest ownership of the property from the disclaimant and vest ownership in another person will not disqualify the disclaimer.” We opened no state disclaimer statute for this page, and nothing here describes any state’s deadline, form or filing place; that is not verified.

One page of ours has a state-specific item: the Kentucky inheritance tax guide reports, from a state presentation, a 9-month disclaimer deadline with a court filing for a will bequest. Do not generalize it. A county or probate-court filing can be required in addition to the delivery in 2518(b)(2), and a missed state requirement is a reason the lawyer needs to be in the room, not a reason to guess. For where the probate itself happens, see our probate guide.

How this page differs from our credit shelter guide

The credit shelter, QTIP and disclaimer trust guide uses the disclaimer as a planning tool inside a married couple’s estate plan at a $15 million exclusion, with the basis table and state estate tax examples. This page is the mechanics for anyone who inherits something, married or not: the five tests, the calendar with dates, acceptance, the next-taker rules for accounts with a beneficiary form, and the retirement-account and Medicaid effects. Both pages cite 2518(b)(2) and (b)(3), 2518(c)(1) and 25.2518-2(e)(2); only this page opens the regulation’s acceptance, joint-property, heir-at-law and IRA-beneficiary text.

A checklist for the 9 months

1. Write down the date of death and compute the 9-month date, plus the next business day if it falls on a weekend or a holiday. Put both in the calendar with a reminder 60 days before.
2. Do nothing with the asset. No withdrawal, no rollover, no rent, no use, no request to sell. If the property has to be kept up, speak to the lawyer about 25.2518-2(d)(2) before acting.
3. Get the beneficiary form and the will, not a copy from the family papers: the custodian’s file and the court’s file.
4. Find out who takes next and whether you are also in the next class as an heir at law or a residuary beneficiary (25.2518-2(e)(3)).
5. Do not trade a promise for the refusal. Any consideration taints the whole interest.
6. Have the lawyer draft a signed writing that identifies the interest, delivered to the executor, the plan administrator or the title holder, and keep proof of delivery.
7. For a Medicaid-age family member, ask an elder-law attorney first.
8. After the disclaimer, the lawyer should check whether any gift or estate tax return is needed for the next taker’s side; we did not read the return instructions for this page (not verified).

What to ask a lawyer

1. What is the exact 9-month date for this interest, and what is the proof of delivery?
2. Who takes if I disclaim, and am I also an heir or a residuary beneficiary who would get it back?
3. Does my state require a filing, and does its deadline differ from 9 months?
4. If this is an IRA, which contingent beneficiary is on file with the custodian, and what does the account agreement say if there is none?
5. Is any part of what I have already done an acceptance under 25.2518-2(d)?
6. Should I disclaim all of it, or an undivided portion?
7. If I may need Medicaid, is there a state rule on disclaimers, and how does it interact with the look-back?

This is an analysis of public documents, not legal, tax or investment advice. Whether a disclaimer is effective depends on the instrument, your state and the facts, and a lawyer must draft and deliver it. Several questions on this page are marked not verified because we did not open the state or custodian source.

FAQ

Sources, read and saved on October 26, 2026: 26 U.S.C. 2518 (law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/2518); 26 CFR 25.2518-1, 25.2518-2 and 25.2518-3 (law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/25.2518-2 and the sibling sections, Legal Information Institute’s presentation of the eCFR); 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-4 (law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/1.401(a)(9)-4); 26 U.S.C. 401(a)(9)(H) (law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/401); 42 U.S.C. 1396p (law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1396p). All calendar arithmetic is ours. Not opened and therefore not verified: any state disclaimer statute, any state Medicaid manual, any custodian’s account agreement, Publication 590-B, and the gift and estate tax return instructions.