Required Minimum Distribution (2026).

What is a Required Minimum Distribution?

A required minimum distribution (RMD) is the minimum amount the IRS requires you to withdraw each year from most tax-deferred retirement accounts once you reach a specified age. The rule exists because traditional IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and similar accounts were funded with pre-tax dollars. RMDs force those deferred dollars back onto a tax return so the government eventually collects income tax on them.

How the RMD is calculated

The formula is straightforward: divide your prior year-end account balance by a distribution period pulled from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table (Publication 590-B). The distribution period reflects a rough life expectancy for the account owner and, for most owners, assumes a beneficiary who is not more than 10 years younger. A different table (Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy) applies when the sole beneficiary is a spouse more than 10 years younger.

Example: a $500,000 IRA balance at the end of last year, with the owner turning 75 this year, uses a distribution period of 24.6. The RMD is $500,000 divided by 24.6, or about $20,325.

Current RMD start age under SECURE 2.0

The SECURE 2.0 Act (2022) raised the RMD start age from 72 to 73 for anyone who reaches 72 after December 31, 2022. The start age rises again to 75 beginning in 2033. Your first RMD may be delayed until April 1 of the year after you turn 73, but the second RMD is still due by December 31 of that same year. Doubling up two distributions in a single tax year can push income into higher brackets or trigger Medicare IRMAA surcharges, so many owners take the first RMD in the year they turn 73 instead of deferring.

Deadlines and the penalty for missing an RMD

Ongoing RMDs are due by December 31 each year. If you miss an RMD, SECURE 2.0 reduced the excise tax from 50% to 25% of the shortfall. If the shortfall is corrected within the correction window (generally two years) and Form 5329 is filed, the penalty drops further to 10%. The IRS may waive the penalty entirely for reasonable cause.

Which accounts require RMDs

• Traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, and SIMPLE IRAs.
• 401(k), 403(b), 457(b) governmental plans, and profit-sharing plans.
• Designated Roth accounts inside employer plans were subject to lifetime RMDs before 2024; SECURE 2.0 removed that requirement starting in tax year 2024.

Roth IRAs have no lifetime RMDs for the original owner. This is one of the reasons Roth conversions are a recurring planning conversation for advisors serving pre-RMD clients.

Inherited accounts follow different rules

Inherited IRAs are governed by a separate set of rules, most notably the 10-year distribution rule for many non-spouse beneficiaries who inherited on or after January 1, 2020. Certain eligible designated beneficiaries (surviving spouses, minor children of the account owner, disabled or chronically ill individuals, and beneficiaries not more than 10 years younger than the decedent) can still stretch distributions over their own life expectancy. A dedicated inherited IRA RMD calculator is on the roadmap.