Guide

Required minimum distributions, explained

Figures and rules on this page last checked against their sources: October 25, 2026.

Required minimum distributions, or RMDs, are the least you must withdraw each year from traditional IRAs and most workplace retirement plans once you reach a set age. The age depends on when you were born: 73 for people born from 1951 through 1958 (and for 1959, under proposed rules), and 75 for anyone born in 1960 or later.¹

The RMD age tool works out your first year and your first deadline.

The starting age by birth date

The 1959 row needs a word. The law as written puts people born in 1959 in both the age-73 group and the age-75 group. The final regulations of July 2024 left that year open, and proposed regulations published the same day would set it at 73.² When this page was last checked, no final rule had replaced the proposal.

The first deadline is different

Your first RMD is for the year you reach your starting age. You can take it during that year, or wait until April 1 of the next year. Every RMD after that is due by December 31.³

The IRS's example: if you reached 73 in 2024, your first RMD was due by April 1, 2025, and your second by December 31, 2025.³ Waiting until April means two RMDs in one tax year.

Two worked timelines

Born March 3, 1958. The starting age is 73, reached in 2031. The first RMD is for 2031 and can be taken as late as April 1, 2032. The second is due by December 31, 2032. Qualified charitable distributions are possible from September 3, 2028, six months after the 70th birthday.

Born in 1960. The starting age is 75, reached in 2035, so the first RMD is for 2035 and due by April 1, 2036. Anyone born in 1960 or later is the first group with an RMD age of 75, so no one reaches that starting age before 2035.¹

The RMD age tool does the same arithmetic for any birth date.

Which accounts

RMDs apply to traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs and workplace plan accounts such as 401(k)s.⁴

Roth IRAs and designated Roth accounts in 401(k) and 403(b) plans have no RMDs while the owner is alive. People who inherit them do face RMD rules.⁵

Still working?

If you are still working, you can usually put off RMDs from your current employer's plan until the year you retire, unless you are a 5% owner of the business.⁶ The exception covers that employer's plan only. Traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRA owners must start at the applicable age whether or not they still work.⁶

How the amount is figured

For each account, divide its balance on December 31 of the previous year by a life-expectancy factor from the IRS tables in Publication 590-B. Most owners use the Uniform Lifetime Table. A different table applies if your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger than you.⁷

Your IRA custodian or plan administrator may calculate the amount, but the IRS says the account owner is responsible for taking the right amount.⁷

Several accounts

If you have more than one IRA, you work out each one's RMD separately, but you can take the total from any one or more of them. The same applies to 403(b) contracts. RMDs from 401(k) and 457(b) plans must be taken from each plan separately.⁸

If you miss one

The amount you should have withdrawn but didn't can face a 25% excise tax, reduced to 10% if you correct it within two years. It is reported on Form 5329.⁹

The IRS can also waive the tax if the shortfall came from a reasonable error and you are taking reasonable steps to fix it. To ask, you file Form 5329 and attach a letter of explanation.¹⁰

Giving to charity straight from an IRA

From age 70½ you can have money paid directly from an IRA to a qualified charity as a qualified charitable distribution, and it can count toward your RMD.¹¹ The yearly limit is $111,000¹² for 2026.

The age for these gifts is still 70½, even though RMDs now start later. For anyone born in 1951 or later, that leaves years when charitable distributions are possible before RMDs begin.

RMDs and taxes

Withdrawals count as taxable income, except any part that was already taxed and qualified Roth distributions.¹³ A higher income in one year can affect other amounts that depend on income, such as the income-related Part B premium two years later. The 2026 premium depends on income in 2024, and the extra charge starts above $109,000 for a single return, $218,000 for a joint return¹⁴.¹⁵

Before your first RMD year

• List every account that has RMDs, and which kind each is.
• Decide whether to take the first one in its own year or by the following April 1, knowing that April means two in one year.
• If you still work, ask whether your employer's plan lets you wait until you retire.
• If you give to charity, look at qualified charitable distributions from 70½.

Your RMD year sits with your other dates on the planner.