By "we" I mean the users of this forum. This is a public user-to-user forum and questions are answered by many TurboTax users as well as TurboTax employees. I specialize in answering IRA-related questions.
If she died in 2015 before reaching the date she was required to begin receiving distributions, April 1 of the year following the year in which she would have reached age 70½, you have the option to use the 5-year rule for distributing instead of spreading distributions out over you life expectancy. Using the 5-year rule would mean that no RMD would have been required by her or by you to this point, but the entire IRA must be distributed by the end of the 5th year following the year of her death.
If she died in 2015 after the date she was required to begin receiving distributions, it was your responsibility to complete her 2015 RMD if she had not done so. You were also required to receive a 2016 RMD from this account as beneficiary. If did not receive these, you must take them now (taking a distribution of the entire account will accomplish this) and file 2015 and 2016 Forms 5329 to request a waiver of the 50% excess accumulation penalties for 2015 and 2016.
