Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs): Rules, Ages, Deadlines & How to Calculate Yours in 2026

If you have money in a traditional retirement account, the government does not let you leave it there forever. At some point, you must start taking money out every year — whether you need it or not. Those forced withdrawals are called required minimum distributions, or RMDs.

An RMD is the smallest amount the tax rules say you must withdraw from your tax-deferred retirement accounts each year once you reach a certain age. The rules exist because those accounts grew tax-deferred: you got a tax break when the money went in, and the government wants its share of tax when the money comes out. Miss an RMD, and the penalty can reach 25% of the amount you failed to take.

What Is an RMD, and When Does It Start?

An RMD applies to accounts where contributions were made before tax, or where growth was never taxed along the way. The most common are traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, and SIMPLE IRAs, plus workplace plans such as 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) plans. If you hold several accounts of the same type, you generally calculate the RMD for each account separately, although IRA amounts can often be combined and taken from one IRA.

Your RMD age depends on your year of birth. If you were born between 1951 and 1959, your RMD age is 73. If you were born in 1960 or later, it is 75. Your first RMD year is the year you reach that age: turn 73 in 2026, and your first RMD is for 2026, even though you may delay taking it until early 2027. Roth IRAs work differently: the original owner has no RMDs during their lifetime, because the money went in after tax, and since 2024 designated Roth money in a workplace plan is also free of RMDs for the owner.

RMD Deadlines: The April 1 Trap

For every year after your first RMD year, the deadline is December 31. For your first RMD year only, you get an extension: you may wait until April 1 of the following year to take that first distribution.

That extension has a hidden cost. If you delay your first RMD into the following year, you will have two taxable distributions in that one year: the delayed first RMD and the second year's RMD, still due by December 31. Two distributions in one year can push you into a higher tax bracket, increase the share of your Social Security benefits that is taxed, and raise Medicare premiums through the surcharge known as IRMAA. For most people, taking the first RMD in its own year is simpler and often cheaper.

How to Calculate Your RMD

Take the balance of the account on December 31 of the previous year, and divide it by a life-expectancy factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. The result is your RMD for the current year.

For example, the table factor at age 73 is 26.5. If your traditional IRA held $500,000 on December 31 of last year, your RMD would be $500,000 divided by 26.5, about $18,868. At older ages the factor gets smaller, so the required withdrawal grows as a share of the balance. Three details matter: use the prior year-end balance, not today's balance; if your spouse is your sole beneficiary and is more than ten years younger, a different table applies and produces a smaller RMD; and while IRA amounts may usually be combined, each 401(k) generally needs its own distribution from that plan.

What Happens If You Miss an RMD?

Missing an RMD used to trigger a penalty of 50% of the shortfall. The SECURE 2.0 Act cut that penalty to 25% of the amount you failed to withdraw, and to 10% if you correct the mistake promptly.

Correction has a clear order: take the missed RMD as soon as you notice the error, report it correctly on your tax return, then file Form 5329 and request a waiver, explaining the reasonable cause. The IRS frequently waives the penalty for an honest mistake once the distribution has been taken, but a waiver is never guaranteed. The best protection is a simple system: a calendar reminder in early December and a check that each distribution left the account before year-end.

Ways to Manage RMDs

You cannot avoid RMDs, but you can plan around them. The main tools, in brief:

• Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs): from age 70½, you can send up to an annual inflation-indexed limit directly from an IRA to a qualified charity. A QCD counts toward your RMD but is not included in your taxable income.
• Roth conversions before RMD age: converting part of a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in your sixties, when income may be lower, shrinks the future tax-deferred balance and therefore future RMDs. You pay tax on the converted amount in the year of conversion.
• The still-working exception: if you are still working at 73 for the employer that sponsors your 401(k), and you own no more than 5% of the company, you may delay RMDs from that plan until you retire. This does not apply to IRAs.
• Timing and coordination: taking the first RMD in its own year avoids bunching two distributions into one tax year, and since RMDs add to taxable income, a big-RMD year is often a bad year for an extra Roth conversion or a large capital gain.

Most RMD money is taxed as ordinary income in the year you receive it. If part of your account holds after-tax contributions, a portion of each distribution may be tax-free, tracked on Form 8606 — keep that form with your tax records.

Inherited IRAs: A Different RMD Clock

If you inherit a retirement account, your RMD rules depend on your relationship to the original owner and on when they died. Surviving spouses have the most options: they can treat the account as their own, or remain as a beneficiary. Minor children, disabled or chronically ill beneficiaries, and beneficiaries not more than ten years younger than the deceased — eligible designated beneficiaries — may take annual RMDs over their own life expectancy.

Most other adult beneficiaries fall under the 10-year rule: the inherited account must be emptied by the end of the tenth year after the year of death. Final IRS regulations added an annual RMD requirement in years one through nine when the original owner had already started RMDs. Inherited Roth IRAs follow the same timing, but the distributions are generally tax-free. If you inherit an account, confirm your deadline before the end of the first year.

The expensive errors are almost always the same — forgetting an account, missing the deadline, or bunching two distributions into one year. Build a simple year-end routine: list every tax-deferred account, calculate each RMD, and take each distribution before December 31.

For a plain-language video walkthrough of retirement topics, see the Problem Solved channel: Problem Solved on YouTube.

Disclaimer: this article is general information about retirement tax rules, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Consult a qualified tax professional or financial adviser before making decisions about your retirement accounts.