If you were the beneficiary of the estate, either the estate would have paid the state income tax and you would have received less distributable net income from the estate or the tax liability for income from the IRA would have been passed through to you for taxation on your own state tax return. The net result would be essentially the same as what you have now. The income taxes you are paying now are are simply those that you would have paid in 2012 had the distribution from the IRA occurred in 2012. There would have been no change in estate taxes. The only difference that you might possibly see is if the decedent lived in a state where you were subject to inheritance tax, in which case inheritance taxes might have been lower.
