Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) From an IRA

TL;DR: Required minimum distributions from a Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE individual retirement account (IRA) must begin at age 73 under the SECURE 2.0 Act, a threshold that rises to age 75 later this decade. Each year’s RMD equals the account’s prior December 31 balance divided by an IRS life expectancy factor from the Uniform Lifetime Table. Missing an RMD triggers a 25 percent excise tax under IRC section 4974, reducible to 10 percent if the shortfall is corrected in time, while a Roth IRA carries no lifetime RMD at all for its original owner.

When Must RMDs Begin, and What Is the Required Beginning Date?

Required minimum distributions from a Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA must begin at age 73 for most current owners, a threshold set by the SECURE 2.0 Act and scheduled to rise to age 75 later this decade.

An RMD is the minimum amount a retirement account owner must withdraw each year once they reach the applicable age. The rule exists because a Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA holds pre-tax contributions, and the government eventually requires the deferred tax on those contributions to be paid through withdrawals. The applicable starting age has moved twice in recent years. The Internal Revenue Service confirms the current schedule under the SECURE 2.0 Act: age 73 applies to owners who reach age 72 after December 31, 2022, and age 75 applies to owners who reach age 73 after December 31, 2032.

The full birth year schedule looks like this:

Born	RMD applicable age
Before July 1, 1949	70½
July 1, 1949 to December 31, 1950	72
1951 to 1959	73
1960 or later	75

Owners born in 1959 fall into a gap the statutory text left ambiguous, since that birth year could technically read as qualifying for either age 73 or age 75. IRS proposed regulations clarify that individuals born in 1959 begin RMDs at age 73, so this group should plan around the resolved age rather than the later one.

The required beginning date, the deadline for the first RMD, is April 1 of the calendar year following the year the owner reaches the applicable age. Every RMD after the first is due by December 31 of its own year. Because the required beginning date allows a delay into the following spring, an owner who waits until that April 1 deadline ends up taking two RMDs in the same calendar year, the delayed first one and the regular second one, which can push more income into a single tax year than spreading the withdrawals across two years would.

How Is Your RMD Amount Calculated Each Year?

Each year’s RMD equals the IRA’s balance as of the prior December 31 divided by the life expectancy factor tied to the owner’s age, drawn from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table for nearly every owner.

The IRS confirms the mechanics in plain terms in its own RMD guidance: the RMD is the prior year end account balance divided by the applicable distribution period, figured separately for each account. The distribution period comes from one of three life expectancy tables published in Appendix B of IRS Publication 590-B. The Uniform Lifetime Table, Table III, is the one nearly every owner uses, covering unmarried owners, owners whose spouse is not the sole beneficiary, and owners whose spouse is not more than ten years younger. A narrower Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy table, Table II, applies only when the spouse is the sole beneficiary for the entire year and is more than ten years younger than the owner. A separate Single Life Expectancy table, Table I, applies to beneficiaries of an inherited account rather than to an owner’s own lifetime RMD, a distinct set of rules covered on this site’s inherited IRA rules page.

This article does not reproduce the tables’ specific factors, since they are keyed to exact age and are republished with each edition of Publication 590-B. The reliable approach is to pull the current factor directly from the current year Publication 590-B, or to rely on the account custodian, which typically calculates the RMD or offers to calculate it for the owner each year.

What Happens If You Miss an RMD?

A missed or short RMD triggers a 25 percent excise tax on the shortfall under IRC section 4974, a rate the SECURE 2.0 Act cut sharply from the prior 50 percent, and the tax drops further to 10 percent if the shortfall is corrected during the correction window.

The excise tax applies to the amount by which the required distribution exceeds what was actually withdrawn, not to the entire account balance. For taxable years beginning after December 29, 2022, that shortfall penalty is 25 percent under 26 CFR 54.4974-1, down from the 50 percent rate that applied under prior law. If the owner corrects the missed distribution within the correction window described in the regulation, the rate falls further to 10 percent. The tax is reported on Form 5329, filed with the owner’s return for the year the shortfall occurred.

Because the penalty is calculated on the shortfall rather than the full RMD, taking a partial distribution and then promptly correcting the rest limits the exposure compared with missing the year entirely. An owner who discovers a missed RMD should still consult a tax professional promptly, since the correction process and any request for penalty relief both run through the IRS’s own procedures.

Does a Roth IRA Have Required Minimum Distributions?

A Roth IRA has no lifetime RMD for its original owner, one of the clearest distinctions between a Roth and a Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA.

The IRS states plainly, in its FAQs on IRA distributions, that RMDs are not required from a Roth IRA during the original owner’s lifetime. That exemption exists because Roth contributions are made with after-tax dollars, so the government has no deferred tax to collect through a forced withdrawal schedule. The exemption is specific to the original owner. A beneficiary who inherits a Roth IRA is subject to a different set of distribution rules, covered in detail on this site’s inherited IRA rules page, so the RMD-free status does not automatically carry over once the account passes to an heir.

Because a Roth IRA sidesteps the lifetime RMD entirely, some owners plan a partial Roth conversion from a Traditional IRA in the years before RMDs begin, shifting future required withdrawals into a smaller Traditional balance. That decision carries its own tax cost in the conversion year and belongs with a tax professional, not a rule of thumb.

Do Multiple IRAs Each Require Their Own RMD Calculation?

Each IRA a taxpayer owns has its RMD figured separately, using that specific account’s own prior year end balance and its own applicable life expectancy factor.

The IRS’s RMD guidance is explicit that the calculation runs account by account, not on a combined household balance. An owner with a Traditional IRA, a SEP IRA, and a rollover IRA works out three separate figures, one per account, before arriving at a total obligation for the year.

Because the rules governing which accounts can be grouped together for withdrawal purposes are technical and differ from the rules that apply to employer plans such as a 401(k), an owner with several IRAs should confirm the current mechanics with their IRA custodian or a tax professional before deciding which account to draw the year’s distribution from. A self-directed IRA holding alternative assets sits inside the same RMD framework as a conventional IRA, which matters for an owner weighing liquidity across a multi-account setup.

Can a Qualified Charitable Distribution Satisfy Your RMD?

A qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, paid directly from an IRA to a qualified charity can satisfy all or part of that year’s RMD, provided the owner is at least age 70½.

The IRS confirms in the same FAQ page that a QCD counts toward the year’s required distribution, so a charitably inclined owner can direct some or all of the RMD straight to a qualified charity rather than taking it as taxable income first. The QCD must move directly from the IRA to the charity under IRC section 408(d)(8), and it is generally not available from an ongoing SEP or SIMPLE IRA that is still receiving employer contributions. The eligibility age for a QCD, age 70½, is lower than the RMD start age itself, so an owner can begin using QCDs before RMDs are even required.

The annual QCD limit is indexed for inflation under the SECURE 2.0 Act and has risen each year: $100,000 in 2023, $105,000 in 2024, $108,000 in 2025, and $111,000 in 2026. A married couple filing jointly can each claim the full individual limit if each spouse has their own IRA. A separate, smaller one-time QCD allowance applies to a gift made to a charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder trust, which has climbed from $50,000 in 2023 to $55,000 in 2026, per IRS Notice 2025-67. On the reporting side, Form 1099-R now carries an optional code, code Y in box 7, that a custodian may use to flag a QCD, though using that code remains optional rather than mandatory for the 2026 tax year. The owner still reports the QCD on their own Form 1040.

What Withholding and Reporting Apply to RMD Payments?

IRA distributions, including RMDs, default to 10 percent federal withholding unless the owner elects a different rate on Form W-4R.

Because an IRA distribution is treated as a nonperiodic payment, the payer withholds at a flat 10 percent rate unless the owner files Form W-4R and elects a different percentage, anywhere from zero to 100 percent. That default differs sharply from the rule for an eligible rollover distribution paid directly to a participant from an employer plan such as a 401(k), where withholding is a mandatory 20 percent that the recipient cannot elect down, a distinction worth knowing when comparing an IRA RMD to a former employer plan’s payout rules. Every IRA distribution, whatever the withholding elected, is reported to the owner and the IRS on Form 1099-R, the standard form used for distributions from IRAs, pensions, annuities, and profit sharing plans.

Where Should RMD Planning Go From Here?

RMD math sits inside a larger IRA picture, and the account type, the beneficiary designation, and the broader tax plan all shape how much of it actually matters to a given owner.

This site’s broader IRA investing hub is the place to start for account types, contribution rules, and strategy beyond the withdrawal phase covered here. An owner still building toward retirement gains more from understanding how Traditional IRA contributions defer tax today in exchange for RMDs later, and from comparing that tradeoff across the different types of IRA accounts available. An owner already facing RMDs benefits from folding the withdrawal into a broader tax strategy rather than treating it as an isolated year end task, and from running the numbers through a retirement calculator that accounts for the withdrawal schedule ahead. Anyone naming a beneficiary should read this site’s inherited IRA rules page, since the RMD rules that apply after an owner’s death diverge sharply from the lifetime rules described above. For a broader view of how RMDs fit alongside other decisions at each stage of a career, this site’s guide to IRA investing by life stage walks through the sequence.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the RMD rules for 2026?

For 2026, the RMD start age remains 73 for owners born 1951 through 1959, the calculation still divides the prior year end balance by the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table factor, and the missed-RMD excise tax stays at 25 percent, reducible to 10 percent if corrected in time. The QCD annual limit for 2026 is $111,000.

What age do RMDs start?

RMDs currently start at age 73 for owners born 1951 through 1959. The start age rises to 75 for owners born 1960 or later, a change scheduled to take effect later this decade under the SECURE 2.0 Act.

How are RMDs calculated?

An RMD is the IRA’s balance as of the prior December 31 divided by the life expectancy factor tied to the owner’s age, using the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table for nearly every owner. The exact factor comes from the current edition of IRS Publication 590-B or from the account custodian.

What is an IRA RMD?

An IRA RMD is the minimum amount the owner of a Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA must withdraw each year once they reach the applicable age, so the tax deferred on those pre-tax contributions eventually gets collected. A Roth IRA has no lifetime RMD for its original owner.

When do RMDs start?

The required beginning date, the deadline for an owner’s first RMD, is April 1 of the year following the year they reach the applicable age, 73 for most current owners. Every RMD after the first is due by December 31 of its own year, and delaying the first one to the April deadline results in two RMDs landing in the same calendar year.

This article is educational information about how required minimum distributions work under current federal law, not individualized tax, legal, or financial advice. Always consult your own legal, financial, and tax professionals before taking or planning a distribution from your IRA.

By Tim Schmidt + Sean Webster Reviewed by Sean Webster