Personal Finance · Retirement Withdrawals

What are required minimum distributions, and when do they start?
Miss one and the penalty is steep.

Q: How is the RMD amount actually calculated?

It's one division problem. Take your account balance as of December 31 of the prior year, then divide by a life-expectancy factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table (the table almost everyone uses; a different table applies only if your sole beneficiary is a spouse more than 10 years younger).

READ8 min · UPDATED2026-07-04

Reviewed against primary sources cited at the bottom of this page.

A required minimum distribution (RMD) is the amount the IRS forces you to pull out of most tax-deferred retirement accounts each year once you hit a certain age, so the money finally gets taxed. The start age moved twice under SECURE 2.0, the math is a single division problem, and the penalty for skipping one used to be brutal.

RMDs start at age 73 if you were born 1951–1959, and age 75 if born 1960 or later (SECURE 2.0, as of 2026). They apply to traditional IRAs and 401(k)s, never to a Roth IRA while you are alive. Each year's amount = your prior-year 12/31 balance divided by an IRS life-expectancy factor. Skip one and the penalty is 25%.

Start age is 73 for those born 1951–1959 and 75 for those born 1960+, up from 70½ before 2020 (SECURE 2.0, as of 2026).
Roth IRAs have no RMDs during the owner's lifetime, and starting in 2024 Roth 401(k)s dropped lifetime RMDs too.
First-year deadline is April 1 of the year after you turn 73/75; every year after that it's December 31.
The penalty for a missed RMD is 25% of the shortfall, cut to 10% if you fix it within a 2-year correction window.
A Qualified Charitable Distribution can satisfy your RMD and exclude up to $108,000 from income in 2025 (indexed).

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This page covers US-specific accounts and tax law. RMD rules apply to US tax-deferred accounts (traditional IRA, 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), SEP, SIMPLE). Other countries have their own decumulation rules.

THE SHORT VERSION

You got a tax break going into a traditional IRA or 401(k). The IRS lets that money grow untaxed for decades, but not forever. Starting at 73 or 75, it makes you withdraw a slice each year and pay ordinary income tax on it. The slice is small at first (under 4%) and grows as you age. Roth money is exempt while you're alive because you already paid the tax. The whole system is one division problem with a scary penalty attached, and the years before RMDs start are where the real planning happens.

Which accounts have RMDs, and which don't?

RMDs hit every account where you deferred income tax on the way in. That means traditional IRAs, rollover IRAs, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, and employer plans like 401(k), 403(b), and governmental 457(b). The one big carve-out is the Roth IRA: because you funded it with after-tax dollars, there is no RMD during your lifetime verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: RMDs apply to traditional IRAs and employer plans but not to a Roth IRA during the owner's lifetime.Verify at: IRS: Retirement Plan and IRA RMDs FAQs ↗The IRS RMD FAQ lists the covered account types and states Roth IRAs are exempt while the owner is alive..

The newest change closed the last loophole: through 2023, designated Roth accounts inside a 401(k) or 403(b) did carry RMDs, which forced people to roll them to a Roth IRA just to avoid them. Starting in 2024, SECURE 2.0 eliminated lifetime RMDs on Roth 401(k) and Roth 403(b) balances, so all Roth money is now RMD-free while you're alive.

STILL WORKING? ONE EXCEPTION

If you're still employed past your RMD age and don't own more than 5% of the company, the "still-working" exception lets you delay RMDs from that employer's 401(k) until you actually retire. It does not apply to IRAs or to old 401(k)s from former employers, and it does not apply if you're a >5% owner.

When exactly do RMDs start under SECURE 2.0?

The start age depends entirely on your birth year, because Congress raised it in two steps. Before the SECURE Act, RMDs began at 70½. SECURE 1.0 (2019) moved it to 72. SECURE 2.0 (2022) moved it to 73, then to 75 for younger savers verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: Under SECURE 2.0, the RMD start age is 73 for those born 1951–1959 and 75 for those born in 1960 or later.Verify at: IRS: Retirement Plan and IRA RMDs FAQs ↗The IRS RMD FAQ states the current start age of 73 and the future move to 75 set by SECURE 2.0.. Find your row:

BIRTH YEAR	RMD START AGE	FIRST RMD IS FOR TAX YEAR
1950 or earlier	72 (already started)	The year they turned 72 (or 70½ if born before 7/1/1949)
1951–1959	73	The year you turn 73
1960 or later	75	The year you turn 75

The deadlines have a quirk worth memorizing. Your first RMD isn't due until April 1 of the year after you reach your start age. Every RMD after that is due by December 31. The trap: if you push your first RMD to that April 1 grace date, your second RMD is still due by December 31 of the same year, so you take two taxable distributions in one calendar year and can spike into a higher bracket. Most people take the first RMD in the start year on purpose to avoid the doubling.

How is the RMD amount actually calculated?

It's one division problem. Take your account balance as of December 31 of the prior year, then divide by a life-expectancy factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table (the table almost everyone uses; a different table applies only if your sole beneficiary is a spouse more than 10 years younger) verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: The RMD equals the prior-year Dec 31 balance divided by the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table factor for the account owner's age.Verify at: IRS Publication 590-B, Uniform Lifetime Table ↗Pub 590-B publishes the Uniform Lifetime Table and the prior-year-balance ÷ factor formula..

WORKED EXAMPLE

Say you turn 73 in 2026 and your traditional IRA was worth $500,000 on 12/31/2025. The Uniform Lifetime Table factor at age 73 is 26.5.

$500,000 ÷ 26.5 = $18,868 — that's your 2026 RMD, taxed as ordinary income.

That's about 3.8% of the balance. At 75 the factor is 24.6 (~4.1%); at 80 it drops to 20.2 (~5.0%); at 90 it's 12.2 (~8.2%). The percentage climbs every year by design.

The exact factors are published in IRS Publication 590-B, updated with the current tables that took effect in 2022 verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: The IRS life-expectancy factors used for RMDs are published in Publication 590-B and reflect tables effective 2022.Verify at: IRS: About Publication 590-B ↗The "About Pub 590-B" page links the distributions guide that contains the current life-expectancy tables.. Your IRA or plan custodian will usually calculate and even report the figure to you each year, but you are the one legally on the hook if it's wrong.

One aggregation rule saves paperwork: if you have several traditional IRAs, calculate the RMD for each but you may withdraw the total from any one of them. The same applies across multiple 403(b) accounts. It does not apply to 401(k)s — each 401(k) must pay its own RMD separately — and you can never satisfy an IRA RMD from a 401(k) or vice versa.

What's the penalty for missing an RMD?

This is where "steep" comes from. If you fail to take the full RMD, the shortfall is hit with an excise tax. Before 2023 that penalty was a punishing 50% of the amount you missed. SECURE 2.0 cut it to 25%, and to just 10% if you correct the shortfall within a 2-year window and file the paperwork verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: The missed-RMD excise tax is 25% under SECURE 2.0, reduced to 10% if corrected within the 2-year window.Verify at: IRS: Retirement Plan and IRA RMDs FAQs ↗The IRS RMD FAQ states the current 25% excise tax and the 10% reduced rate for timely correction..

DO THIS FAST

If you miss one, don't panic — act. Withdraw the shortfall immediately, then file Form 5329 to report it and request a waiver of the penalty. The IRS routinely waives it for reasonable cause when you fix the miss and attach a short explanation. On a missed $18,868 RMD, the difference between the 25% and 10% rates is roughly $4,717 vs $1,887 — and a granted waiver can take it to $0.

How do you shrink your future RMDs before they start?

The best RMD planning happens in the gap years — after you stop working but before age 73/75 — when your income is often at its lowest. Three levers do most of the work:

Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs). Once you're 70½+, you can send up to $108,000 (2025 limit, indexed) directly from an IRA to charity. It counts toward your RMD but is excluded from taxable income entirely — better than taking the RMD and then deducting the gift, because it lowers your AGI and can reduce Medicare IRMAA surcharges and the taxable portion of Social Security.
Roth conversions in the gap years. Converting traditional IRA dollars to Roth in low-income years shrinks the balance that future RMDs are calculated from, and Roth money never has lifetime RMDs. You pay tax now to kill a bigger tax later. See Roth conversion timing for the bracket math.
Withdrawal sequencing. Drawing down traditional balances earlier — even before you're forced to — can flatten the RMD spike at 73/75 and keep your lifetime tax bill lower. The withdrawal sequencing page walks the order.

The through-line: RMDs are a tax-timing problem, not a tax-rate problem you can escape. Every dollar in a traditional account will be taxed eventually. The only real choice is when, and the gap years are your cheapest window to decide it on your terms instead of the IRS's.

RUN YOUR NUMBERS

Run your own numbers in the RMD calculator. Enter your age and prior-year 12/31 balance; it pulls the right Uniform Lifetime Table factor, shows your dollar RMD and the deadline, and projects the rising withdrawal percentage year by year. The formula underneath is the whole game: prior-year balance ÷ your age factor from Pub 590-B.

No custodian, brokerage, charity, or anyone else pays this site. See /how-this-site-makes-money/.

→ Withdrawal Sequencing, the order to tap accounts to keep lifetime tax low → Roth Conversion Timing, use gap years to shrink future RMDs → Near Retirement, the 5-to-10-year runway checklist → Social Security Strategy, how RMD income interacts with claiming age → 72(t) SEPP, penalty-free early withdrawals decades before RMDs

SOURCES

IRS: Retirement Plan and IRA RMDs FAQs · irs.gov
IRS Publication 590-B, Uniform Lifetime Table · irs.gov
IRS: About Publication 590-B · irs.gov

Last updated 2026-07-04. Not financial advice. RMD ages and penalties are set by statute; dollar limits and life-expectancy factors are indexed and change, verify before relying on them.