Your RMDs over the next 15 years

This table updates with your inputs. Each year’s balance grows at your expected return, minus that year’s RMD. Actual returns will vary.

How the RMD calculator works

The required minimum distribution formula is simple:

Your age is the age you reach on your birthday this year, even if your birthday is in December. The distribution period comes from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, which most account owners use. The divisor shrinks each year, so the share you must withdraw rises with age: about 3.8% at 73, 5% at 80 and 8.2% at 90.

If your spouse is your only beneficiary for the whole year and is more than 10 years younger than you, you use the IRS Joint Life and Last Survivor Table instead. It gives a longer distribution period and a smaller RMD than this calculator shows.

RMD table: IRS Uniform Lifetime Table

The distribution period for each age, with the RMD for every $100,000 in your account:

Source: IRS Publication 590-B, Appendix B, Table III, in use since 2022.

When do RMDs start?

The SECURE 2.0 Act raised the RMD age. Your start age depends on your birth year:

RMDs apply to traditional IRAs, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans. Roth IRAs and Roth accounts in workplace plans have no RMDs while the owner is alive. If you still work and do not own more than 5% of the company, your current employer’s plan may let you delay its RMDs until you retire. That exception does not apply to IRAs.

RMD deadlines and penalties

• First RMD: by April 1 of the year after you reach your RMD age. Someone who turns 73 in 2026 has until April 1, 2027.
• Every later RMD: by December 31 each year.
• The double-RMD trap: if you wait until April 1 for your first RMD, you must also take the second one by December 31 of that same year. Two RMDs in one year can push you into a higher tax bracket.
• Penalty: 25% of the amount you failed to withdraw, cut to 10% if you correct it within two years. File Form 5329, and you can ask the IRS to waive it for a reasonable error.

With the December 31, 2026 deadline coming, many custodians ask for RMD requests by early to mid-December, so do not wait until the last week.

Ways to handle RMDs and taxes

• Know the tax. RMDs from pre-tax accounts are taxed as ordinary income. Check your bracket with our income tax calculator. The 2025–2028 senior deduction of up to $6,000 for people 65 and older can soften the bill.
• Withhold tax at the source. You can ask your custodian to withhold federal tax from the RMD, which can replace quarterly estimated payments.
• Give it to charity. From age 70½, a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) sent straight from an IRA to charity counts toward your RMD and is not taxable income.
• Reinvest what you do not need. You cannot put an RMD back into an IRA, but you can invest it in a regular account, a CD, Treasury bills or I bonds.
• Plan before RMDs start. Roth conversions in lower-income years before your RMD age can shrink future RMDs. Our retirement calculator shows how long your savings may last.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and how we calculated

Distribution periods come from the Uniform Lifetime Table in IRS Publication 590-B, Appendix B. Start ages, deadlines, Roth rules and the 25% and 10% excise tax come from the IRS pages Retirement topics: Required minimum distributions and RMD FAQs. The calculator divides your prior year-end balance by the divisor for your age at the end of the RMD year and rounds to the cent.