@RustyRaven correct, but look at it this way, if you left it in the IRA and later sold it for $15k and immediately distributed the proceeeds you'd pay ordinary income tax; if you distribute now and it appreciates to $15k later, you'd only pay at the capital gain rate upon sale.
<<Ordinarily, that would be a loss (15k - 20k = -5k)>>
you can't look at it like that....you never paid income tax on the intial $20k investment; presumably it went into your IRA tax deferred, so in essence, part of the loss within the IRA from $20k down to $5k was 'house money' since the IRS willl never require you to pay tax on the loss (sounds convoluted to "pay" tax on a loss, but remember you never paid income tax on the $20k to begin with),
