It's not clear what you mean by an "IRA benefit." Did you inherit an IRA from your parent as a beneficiary, or was money taken out of the IRA and paid to you? Did you get a check for $15,000, or did you get an account of some kind?
Whatever happened, there probably isn't anything you can do at this point to change the tax consequences. You probably don't have any choices about how to handle it. I'm not sure what you mean by "hurting" your taxes. If you receive distributions from an IRA you have to pay tax on the money that you receive, but that's because you received the additional income. If you have more income you have to pay more tax. Do you consider that "hurting" your taxes?
If you inherited an IRA you will have to start taking yearly distributions (Required Minimum Distributions or RMDs) from the inherited IRA, even if you are not old enough to have to take RMDs from an IRA of your own. The RMDs are taxable income to you. In most cases you will also be required to take all of the money out of the inherited IRA, and pay tax on it, within 10 years.
