Required Minimum Distributions: The Rules, the Deadlines, and the Planning Window

Required minimum distributions are the amounts you must withdraw each year from traditional IRAs and most employer plans once you reach your applicable age, currently 73 and rising to 75 for those born in 1960 or later. Each year's amount is the prior December 31 balance divided by an IRS life expectancy factor, due by December 31, except the first, which can wait until April 1 of the following year. A missed RMD carries a 25 percent excise tax, reduced to 10 percent if corrected promptly.

The rules are mechanical. The planning is not, because the years before RMDs begin are often the best window a family will have to manage lifetime taxes. Our retirement accounts primer covers the accounts themselves; this article covers the distribution rules and the decisions around them.

When do required minimum distributions start?

The applicable age depends on when you were born. Under Internal Revenue Code section 401(a)(9)(C), as amended by SECURE 2.0, the age is 73 for anyone who reaches 72 after 2022 and 73 before 2033, and 75 for anyone who reaches 74 after 2032. In practice, people born from 1951 through 1958 start at 73, and people born in 1960 or later start at 75.

Those born in 1959 fall into both categories because of a drafting error in the statute. The Treasury Department's 2024 proposed regulations would set their applicable age at 73. Those regulations are not yet final, and the IRS has said taxpayers should apply a reasonable, good-faith reading of the statute until they are, so anyone born in 1959 should confirm the current guidance before relying on age 75.

What are the deadlines?

Every RMD after the first is due by December 31. The first may be delayed until April 1 of the year after you reach your applicable age, according to the IRS RMD frequently asked questions. Delaying is not always wise: it means two distributions in the same calendar year, which can push income into a higher bracket or across a Medicare premium threshold.

If you still work for the employer sponsoring your plan, that plan generally lets you delay RMDs until the year you retire. The exception does not apply to IRAs, and it does not apply to anyone who owns more than 5 percent of the employer.

How is the RMD calculated?

Divide the account's balance on December 31 of the prior year by the factor for your age at the end of the current year. Most owners use the Uniform Lifetime Table in Treasury Regulation section 1.401(a)(9)-9: the factor is 26.5 at 73, 24.6 at 75, 20.2 at 80, and 16.0 at 85. If your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, a joint life table produces a smaller required amount.

Because the divisor shrinks every year, the required percentage rises: about 3.8 percent of the balance at 73, about 5 percent at 80, and about 6.3 percent at 85. Strong investment returns in your seventies can therefore produce larger, not smaller, distributions later.

Which accounts can be combined?

The aggregation rules trip up more families than the calculation does. Under Treasury Regulation section 1.408-8, you calculate the RMD for each traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRA separately, then take the total from any one or more of them. 403(b) accounts can be aggregated with each other, but not with IRAs. Each 401(k) and 457(b) plan must satisfy its own RMD.

Inherited IRAs follow their own rules and can be combined only with other IRAs inherited from the same person; see our article on the inherited IRA 10-year rule.

Roth IRAs have no RMDs during the owner's lifetime, and since 2024, under section 402A(d)(5), designated Roth accounts in 401(k) and 403(b) plans no longer do either.

What happens if you miss one?

The excise tax under section 4974 is 25 percent of the amount not withdrawn. It falls to 10 percent if you take the missed amount and file a return reflecting the tax within the correction window, which generally runs through the end of the second year after the year of the shortfall. The IRS can waive the tax entirely when the shortfall was due to reasonable error and is being corrected; the request is made on Form 5329 with a letter of explanation.

How should you plan before RMDs begin?

In our view, the years between retirement and the applicable age are the most valuable tax planning window most families have. Earned income has stopped, Social Security may not have started, and RMDs have not yet arrived, so taxable income can be unusually low.

Three tools fit that window. Partial Roth conversions fill lower brackets now and shrink the balance that future RMDs are calculated on. Deliberate withdrawal sequencing draws on the right accounts in the right years. And watching the Medicare thresholds matters, because the Social Security Administration sets income-related premium surcharges using modified adjusted gross income from two years earlier; for 2026 the surcharges begin above $109,000 for single filers and $218,000 for joint filers. Our article on Medicare for high-income retirees explains the brackets.

How do qualified charitable distributions fit?

From age 70½, an IRA owner can transfer money directly from the IRA to a qualifying charity as a qualified charitable distribution. The transfer is excluded from income and, once RMDs begin, counts toward the year's RMD, per IRS Publication 590-B. The 2026 limit is $111,000 per person under IRS Notice 2025-67. A QCD must go directly from the IRA to the charity; it cannot come from a 401(k), and donor-advised funds and supporting organizations do not qualify. For charitably inclined families who take the standard deduction, it is often the most efficient way to give; see our charitable giving playbook.

Worked example (hypothetical)

A 75-year-old widow, born in 1951, has a single traditional IRA worth $2,000,000 on December 31, 2025. Her 2026 RMD is $2,000,000 divided by 24.6, or about $81,301.

She gives $30,000 a year to her church and alma mater. If she directs $30,000 from the IRA to those charities as QCDs before taking any other distribution, only the remaining $51,301 of her RMD is taxable income. Had she instead withdrawn the full $81,301 and written checks from her bank account, she would report all of it as income, and with the standard deduction she would receive no tax benefit for the gifts.

Order matters. The first dollars distributed in a year count toward the RMD, and an RMD cannot be rolled over, so she should make the QCDs before any other withdrawal. If she withdraws the full RMD first, a later QCD no longer reduces the RMD she has already reported as income. This example is simplified and ignores state tax and the effect on Medicare premiums.

Key numbers

Frequently asked questions

Can I take my RMD in stock instead of cash?Yes. A distribution of securities counts at its fair market value on the date it leaves the IRA, and that value becomes your cost basis in the taxable account.

Can I satisfy all my RMDs from one account?For IRAs, yes: calculate each IRA's amount and take the total from any of them. 403(b)s can be combined with each other. Each 401(k) plan must make its own distribution.

Should I delay my first RMD to April 1?Only after modeling it. Delaying puts two RMDs in one tax year, which often costs more than it saves.

Can I withhold tax from my RMD instead of paying estimates?Yes. Federal withholding on a retirement distribution is generally treated as paid evenly through the year for estimated tax purposes, so a single December distribution with withholding can cover a year's underpayment, under section 6654(g).

Do RMDs apply if I am still working?For your current employer's plan, generally not until you retire, unless you own more than 5 percent of the company. IRAs and former employers' plans still require distributions.

Sources

• Retirement plan and IRA required minimum distributions FAQs, Internal Revenue Service
• Publication 590-B: Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements, Internal Revenue Service, 2025
• Notice 2025-67: 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, Internal Revenue Service
• 26 U.S. Code 401: Qualified pension, profit-sharing, and stock bonus plans, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
• 26 U.S. Code 4974: Excise tax on certain accumulations in qualified retirement plans, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
• 26 U.S. Code 402A: Optional treatment of elective deferrals as Roth contributions, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
• 26 U.S. Code 6654: Failure by individual to pay estimated income tax, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
• 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-9: Life expectancy and distribution period tables, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
• 26 CFR 1.408-8: Distribution requirements for individual retirement plans, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
• Required Minimum Distributions, proposed regulations (89 FR 58644), Department of the Treasury, July 19, 2024
• Medicare premiums: rules for higher-income beneficiaries, Social Security Administration