RMD Calculator

RMDs: Required Minimum Distributions

Tax-deferred retirement accounts let money grow for decades without tax, but not indefinitely. Once you reach a certain age, the IRS requires you to withdraw at least a minimum amount each year, called a required minimum distribution or RMD, so the deferred income is eventually taxed. You can always take more than the minimum; only the minimum is mandatory.

Important Dates for Taking RMDs

The age at which RMDs begin has moved several times. It was 70½ for decades, rose to 72 under the SECURE Act of 2019 and then to 73 under SECURE 2.0. It will rise to 75 for people born in 1960 or later. In short:

• Born before July 1, 1949: RMDs began at 70½.
• Born July 1, 1949 through 1950: RMDs began at 72.
• Born 1951 through 1959: RMDs begin at 73.
• Born 1960 or later: RMDs begin at 75.

Your first RMD is for the year you reach the starting age, but you can delay taking it until April 1 of the following year, called the required beginning date. Every later RMD is due by December 31 of its year. Delaying the first one means taking two distributions in the same calendar year, which can push you into a higher bracket, so many people take the first RMD in the year it applies.

The deadline for each year's amount is based on the account value at the end of the previous year. For example, someone born in 1953 turns 73 in 2026. Their first RMD is based on the December 31, 2025 balance and must be taken by April 1, 2027; their second, based on the December 31, 2026 balance, is due by December 31, 2027.

If you are still working past the starting age and do not own more than 5% of the employer, your current employer's 401(k) or 403(b) plan may let you postpone RMDs from that plan until April 1 of the year after you retire. This exception does not apply to IRAs, including SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, or to plans of former employers.

How RMDs are Calculated

For most people, the RMD equals the account balance on December 31 of the previous year divided by a distribution period from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table for your age at the end of the RMD year. With the default inputs, someone born in 1951 is 75 at the end of 2026, the table gives a distribution period of 24.6, and a $300,000 balance requires a $12,195.12 withdrawal.

If your spouse is the sole beneficiary for the whole year and is more than ten years younger than you, you use the Joint and Last Survivor Table instead, which gives longer periods and smaller RMDs. Beneficiaries of inherited accounts use the Single Life Expectancy Table. The current tables took effect in 2022 and reflect longer life expectancies than the previous ones. Selected Uniform Lifetime Table values:

What Retirement Accounts do RMDs Apply to?

RMDs apply to traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, rollover IRAs, 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans, profit-sharing plans and other defined-contribution plans. Roth IRAs are exempt while the original owner is alive, and since 2024, Roth balances in 401(k) and 403(b) plans are also exempt during the owner's life. Inherited accounts, including inherited Roth IRAs, have their own distribution rules.

Do I Have to Calculate My RMD for Every Account?

Yes, you calculate the RMD separately for each account, but the rules for withdrawing differ by account type. For IRAs, including SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, you can add the RMDs together and take the total from any one IRA or any combination. The same aggregation is allowed among 403(b) accounts.

Employer plans such as 401(k)s and 457(b)s are different: each plan's RMD must come out of that plan. You cannot satisfy a 401(k) RMD with an IRA withdrawal, or the other way around. Inherited accounts can be combined only with other accounts inherited from the same person. Consolidating several old 401(k)s into one IRA before RMDs start can make the yearly process much simpler.

What Happens If You Don't Take RMDs?

Missing an RMD, or taking less than required, triggers an excise tax of 25% on the shortfall, reduced to 10% if you take the missed amount and file a corrected return within the correction window. Before 2023 the penalty was 50%. The IRS can waive the tax for reasonable error if the shortfall is corrected; request a waiver on Form 5329 with an explanation.

RMDs and Taxes

RMDs from pre-tax accounts are taxed as ordinary income in the year you take them, at federal and usually state rates. Any part attributable to nondeductible contributions, tracked on Form 8606, comes out tax-free. RMDs cannot be rolled over into another tax-deferred account. Because they add to income, large RMDs can increase how much of your Social Security is taxed and raise Medicare premiums through income-related surcharges.

Brokerage Reporting Requirements for RMDs

IRA custodians must tell you by January 31 when an RMD is due for the year and either state the amount or offer to calculate it, and they report to the IRS that an RMD applies. Distributions are reported on Form 1099-R. Most custodians can set up automatic RMD payments and withhold federal and state tax on request, which removes the risk of forgetting. Employer plans generally calculate and distribute RMDs for participants.

Inherited RMDs

The SECURE Act of 2019 changed the rules for accounts inherited from owners who die in 2020 or later. Most non-spouse beneficiaries must now empty the account by the end of the tenth year after the year of death, the so-called 10-year rule. If the original owner had already started RMDs, final IRS regulations also require the beneficiary to take annual RMDs in years one through nine, based on the beneficiary's life expectancy, with the remainder withdrawn by year ten. If the owner died before their required beginning date, no annual withdrawals are needed, as long as the account is empty by the end of year ten.

Certain eligible designated beneficiaries can still stretch withdrawals over their own life expectancy: a surviving spouse, a minor child of the owner (until age 21, after which the 10-year rule applies), a disabled or chronically ill person, and anyone not more than ten years younger than the owner.

Surviving spouses have the most flexibility. A spouse can treat the inherited IRA as their own, or roll it into their own IRA, so RMDs are based on the spouse's age and start at the spouse's required age. Alternatively, a spouse can keep it as an inherited IRA, which allows penalty-free withdrawals before 59½ and lets a younger spouse delay distributions until the deceased owner would have reached RMD age. Starting in 2024, a spouse beneficiary can also elect to be treated as the deceased employee for RMD purposes.

Non-person beneficiaries such as estates and most charities face faster payout rules, and trusts follow special rules depending on how they are written. In the year of death, any RMD the owner had not yet taken must still be taken, by the beneficiary. Inherited Roth IRAs are subject to the same timing rules, but the withdrawals are generally tax-free. Because the rules are intricate and the penalties are steep, beneficiaries of large accounts should confirm their schedule with the custodian or a tax adviser.

Minimizing Taxes on RMDs

Several strategies can reduce the tax impact of RMDs.

• Qualified charitable distributions: from age 70½, you can send up to an inflation-adjusted limit, over $100,000 a year, directly from an IRA to charity. The gift counts toward your RMD and is excluded from income.
• Roth conversions before RMDs begin: converting part of a traditional balance in lower-income years shrinks future RMDs.
• Qualifying longevity annuity contracts (QLACs): up to an inflation-adjusted limit can be used to buy a deferred annuity that is excluded from RMD calculations until payments start, as late as 85.
• Keep working: the still-working exception can defer RMDs from a current employer's plan.
• Plan withdrawals early: drawing moderate amounts in your sixties can smooth taxable income instead of facing large forced withdrawals later.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• IRS – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
• IRS – Publication 590-B, Distributions from IRAs