RMD Calculator

How an RMD is calculated

The formula has exactly two inputs: last December 31's balance divided by an IRS life-expectancy factor for your age. The factor comes from the Uniform Lifetime Table in IRS Publication 590-B, and it shrinks every year, which is why the required percentage climbs as you age even if your balance stands still. At 73 the divisor is 26.5, so the IRS requires 3.77% of the balance. At 80 the divisor is 20.2 and the required share is 4.95%. The government is not being subtle: the table is designed to empty most of a traditional account across a long retirement, collecting the deferred tax on the way out.

A worked example: $500,000 at three ages

Take a traditional IRA that held exactly $500,000 on December 31. The required withdrawal depends only on the age reached this year:

At 73 the RMD is $18,868. At 75 it is $20,325, and at 80 it reaches $24,752, on the same balance. In practice balances move with markets and with the withdrawals themselves, so treat these as the shape of the obligation rather than a forecast: the percentage is what is guaranteed, and it rises every single year.

When your RMDs start: the SECURE 2.0 ages

Your first RMD is for the year you reach that start age, and it carries one special rule: you may delay the very first one until April 1 of the following year. Doing so means two taxable RMDs land in that second year, which can push you into a higher bracket and inflate your Medicare IRMAA tier two years later. Most people are better off taking the first RMD in its own year. Every RMD after the first is due by December 31, no exceptions for weekends of the heart.

The penalty for missing one

Miss an RMD and the IRS charges an excise tax of 25% of the shortfall, reduced to 10% if you withdraw the missed amount and correct the error promptly. On this page's example, skipping the age-73 RMD of $18,868 would cost $4,717 at the full rate or $1,887 if corrected in time. There is also a waiver path: file Form 5329, attach a reasonable-cause letter, and the IRS routinely waives the penalty for honest mistakes that were fixed. What does not work is ignoring it; custodians report your year-end balance to the IRS, so the shortfall is visible.

Which accounts, and which table

Traditional IRAs and most workplace plans (401(k), 403(b), 457(b)) carry RMDs. Roth IRAs never do during the owner's life, and since 2024 neither do Roth 401(k) accounts. Still working past your start age? A current employer's 401(k) (not an IRA, and not a plan from an old employer) can usually wait until you retire, unless you own more than 5% of the business. One more table exists: if your spouse is your sole beneficiary and is more than 10 years younger, the Joint Life Table produces a larger divisor and a smaller RMD; this calculator flags that case rather than computing it, because the joint table needs both ages. Inherited accounts follow their own 10-year rule, covered in RMD rules by birth year.

An RMD cannot be rolled over or converted to Roth; the first dollars out of the account each year are the RMD. Withdrawals above the RMD are fair game for conversion, which is why the years between retirement and your start age are the classic Roth conversion window, a strategy our Roth conversion calculator prices out.

Aggregating accounts: one RMD or many

The IRS calculates an RMD for every account, but lets you satisfy some of them jointly. Traditional IRAs, including SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, are aggregated: compute each account's RMD, add them, and withdraw the total from any combination of your IRAs. A spouse's IRAs are always separate; there is no household RMD. Workplace plans do not aggregate with IRAs or with each other: a 401(k) at a former employer produces its own RMD that must leave that plan. The 403(b) is the exception among plans, since multiple 403(b) accounts can be aggregated like IRAs. Getting this wrong in the convenient direction, taking the whole amount from an IRA while a stranded 401(k) RMD goes untaken, is one of the most common penalty filings, and it is entirely avoidable with a December checklist.

Qualified charitable distributions: the RMD that skips your tax return

From age 70½, which is deliberately earlier than any current RMD start age, you may send money directly from an IRA to a qualified charity. The distribution counts toward your RMD but is excluded from taxable income entirely. For an owner in the 22% bracket taking an $18,868 RMD they do not need, routing the full amount as a QCD keeps $18,868 out of adjusted gross income, which also lowers the taxable share of Social Security benefits and the Medicare MAGI that sets IRMAA tiers. The mechanics matter: the check must go directly from the custodian to the charity, the charity must be a public charity (not a donor-advised fund), and you need the same written acknowledgment as any sizable donation. Done in January, a QCD also settles the year's RMD early, before market swings change the balance the percentage applies to.

The still-working and Roth corners

Two populations can ignore most of this page. Employees still working for the sponsoring employer, who own 5% or less of it, owe no RMD from that employer's 401(k) until they retire, though their IRAs are unaffected by the exception. And Roth money is outside the system during the owner's life entirely: Roth IRAs never had an RMD, and since January 2024 Roth 401(k) balances are exempt as well, a change that removed the old roll-it-out-just-to-dodge-the-RMD chore. Heirs are a different story, and the birth-year rules guide covers the 10-year clock they inherit.