You can't keep funds in a traditional IRA (including SEP and SIMPLE IRAs) indefinitely. Eventually, they must be distributed. If there are no distributions, or if the distributions aren't large enough, you may have to pay an excise tax on the amount not distributed as required. See Excess Accumulations (Insufficient Distributions), later, under What Acts Result in Penalties or Additional Taxes. The requirements for distributing IRA funds differ, depending on whether you are the IRA owner or the beneficiary of a decedent's IRA.