That amount is your required minimum distribution, or RMD. Use the calculator below to find out exactly what you owe this year, what it will cost you in taxes, and how much the IRS will require of you every year for the rest of your life.
1. Enter your date of birth.
Not your age — your birth date. It determines both your life expectancy factor and the year your withdrawals legally have to begin, which changed under the SECURE 2.0 Act.
2. Enter your account balance as of December 31 of last year.
This is the single most misunderstood input. Your RMD is based on what the account was worth at the end of last year, not what it’s worth today.
3. Tell us about your spouse if they’re your sole beneficiary.
If your spouse is the only beneficiary on the account and more than ten years younger than you, the IRS lets you use a longer life expectancy — which meaningfully lowers your required withdrawal.
The formula itself is simple:
The work is in the factor. Every year the IRS publishes life expectancy tables in Publication 590-B, and which one applies to you depends on your situation:
Your situation
Table you use
Most people — including married people whose spouse is close to their age
Table III · Uniform Lifetime Table
Your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger than you
Table II · Joint and Last Survivor
You inherited the account from someone else
Table I · Single Life Expectancy
A quick example. Say you turn 75 this year and your traditional IRA was worth $500,000 on December 31 of last year. The Uniform Lifetime Table gives a factor of 24.6 at age 75. Divide $500,000 by 24.6 and your RMD is $20,325.20.
Notice what happens as you age: the factor shrinks. At 75 you’re withdrawing about 4% of the account. At 85 the factor is 16.0 — roughly 6.3%. At 95 it’s 8.9, or more than 11%. RMDs don’t just continue, they accelerate, and that’s the part most people don’t see coming until the projection in the calculator above shows it to them.
The SECURE 2.0 Act moved the starting line, and it now depends on the year you were born:
Year you were born
Your RMDs begin at age
1950 or earlier
Already required (70½ or 72)
1951–1959
73
1960 or later
75
The April 1 trap
For your very first RMD only, you’re allowed to delay until April 1 of the following year. It sounds like a gift. It usually isn’t — because your second RMD is still due by December 31 of that same year. Take the delay and you stack two taxable distributions into one tax year, which can push you into a higher bracket, trigger a Medicare IRMAA surcharge two years later, and increase the share of your Social Security that gets taxed. Every RMD after the first is due December 31.
Missing an RMD is one of the most expensive mistakes in retirement. The IRS charges an excise tax of 25% of the amount you failed to withdraw. Correct the shortfall within the two-year correction window and file Form 5329, and that drops to 10%. If the miss was due to reasonable error and you’re fixing it, the IRS can waive the penalty entirely — but you have to ask, in writing.
The good news: this is entirely avoidable. It’s a calendar problem, not a math problem.
Subject to RMDs
Traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, 457(b)s, and profit-sharing plans.
Not subject during your lifetime
Roth IRAs, and — since 2024 — Roth 401(k)s and Roth 403(b)s. Your heirs will face distribution rules on these accounts, but you won’t.
Two rules people get wrong:
You can aggregate IRAs. You cannot aggregate 401(k)s.
You must calculate the RMD for each traditional IRA separately, but you’re free to take the total from whichever IRA you choose. Employer plans like 401(k)s and 457(b)s don’t work that way — each plan’s RMD must come out of that specific plan.
The still-working exception
If you’re still employed by the company sponsoring your 401(k), and you don’t own 5% or more of it, you can generally delay RMDs from that plan until you retire. It doesn’t help your IRAs.
A required withdrawal isn’t a required tax bill of a particular size. There’s room to work.
Give directly from the IRA
A qualified charitable distribution lets you send up to $111,000 in 2026 straight from your IRA to a qualified charity. It counts toward your RMD but never appears in your adjusted gross income — which is better than taking the distribution and deducting the gift. Available from age 70½.
Convert during the gap years
The window between retirement and your first RMD is often the lowest-tax stretch of your life. Converting traditional dollars to Roth in those years shrinks the balance your future RMDs are calculated from — and Roth accounts have no RMDs at all.
Use withholding instead of estimated payments
Tax withheld from a December RMD is treated by the IRS as though it were paid evenly across the year, which can clean up an underpayment problem retroactively.
Watch the thresholds, not just the bracket
IRMAA surcharges, the taxation of Social Security, and the net investment income tax all turn on income cliffs. Landing a dollar over one of them can cost far more than a dollar.
Most people take their RMD the same way every year: one lump sum in December, minimum amount, whatever the custodian calculates. That satisfies the IRS. It rarely satisfies the math.
The projection in the calculator above shows the trajectory — required withdrawals climbing as a percentage every year, right through the years your medical costs are rising and your flexibility is shrinking. What you do in the decade before that curve steepens is what determines how much of it you keep.
A Retired.com advisor can map your RMDs against your full income picture — Social Security timing, Medicare thresholds, Roth conversions and what you intend to leave behind.
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