RMD Calculator: Required Minimum Distributions

How to use this calculator

1. Choose your situation. This calculator uses the Uniform Lifetime Table for an original account owner. For inherited accounts or a sole-beneficiary spouse more than 10 years younger, it directs you to the appropriate calculation.
2. Choose your birth year. It sets the age your RMDs start and the distribution period for each year.
3. Choose the year you’re calculating, and enter the account’s balance on December 31 of the year before. Every RMD is based on the previous year-end balance.
4. Enter qualifying withdrawals already taken for that RMD year to see how much remains. Use the gross distribution, including tax withheld. Do not count a delayed prior-year RMD toward the current year's requirement.
5. Enter any qualified charitable distribution (QCD) sent directly to charity this year. It counts toward your RMD but is excluded from income, so it lowers the taxable amount and the tax estimate. Do not also count it as a withdrawal above.
6. Set a return to project future RMDs, and your tax bracket to estimate the federal tax on this year’s withdrawal.

Calculate each account separately. The calculator uses the Uniform Lifetime Table, which applies to most owners. If your spouse is your only beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, the IRS’s Joint Life table gives a smaller RMD; inherited accounts follow different rules: use the inherited IRA RMD calculator.

How your RMD is calculated

The distribution period comes from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, and it shrinks each year, so the share of your balance you must take rises with age: about 3.8% at 73, 5.0% at 80 and 8.2% at 90.

Example: born in 1952, you turn 74 in 2026, when the period is 25.5. With $500,000 in the account on December 31, 2025, your 2026 RMD is $500,000 ÷ 25.5 = $19,607.84. In the 22% bracket, that adds about $4,314 to your federal tax.

A withdrawal you have already made

In the example above, if $8,000 has already been credited toward the 2026 RMD, the remaining amount is $19,607.84 minus $8,000 = $11,607.84. The annual RMD itself stays the same: it uses the prior December 31 balance, not today's balance. Ask your custodian which distributions have been credited to each RMD year.

When RMDs start

The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 raised the starting age from 72 to 73 for 2023 and to 75 for people born in 1960 or later. Starting later gives more years for Roth conversions at lower tax rates before RMDs begin.

RMD table by age

The IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, with the RMD for common balances:

The table continues past 100, down to a period of 2.0 at 120 and older.

Deadlines and the first-year trap

• Every RMD after the first is due by December 31.
• Your first RMD, for the year you reach 73 or 75, can wait until April 1 of the next year. If you wait, you take two RMDs that year: the delayed one and the regular one due December 31. Both count as income, which can push you into a higher bracket and raise your Medicare premiums two years later.
• Still working? If you’re still employed and don’t own 5% or more of the company, your current employer’s 401(k) usually lets you delay its RMDs until you retire. IRAs don’t have this exception.

Which accounts have RMDs

• Yes: traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, and 401(k), 403(b) and governmental 457(b) plans.
• No, for the original owner: Roth IRAs, and, since 2024, Roth accounts inside 401(k) and 403(b) plans.

If you have several IRAs, calculate each RMD separately, then take the total from any one or more of them. The same goes for 403(b)s among themselves. Each 401(k) or 457(b) RMD has to come out of its own plan.

Ways to lower the tax on RMDs

• Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs): from age 70½, send up to $111,000 in 2026 straight from an IRA to charity. It counts toward your RMD and stays out of your income, which also helps with the taxable part of Social Security and with IRMAA. The $111,000 limit is from IRS Notice 2025-67; $108,000 was the 2025 limit, and some sites still quote it for 2026.

Example: with the $19,607.84 RMD above, a $10,000 QCD leaves $9,607.84 taxable. At 22% that is about $2,114 of federal tax, instead of about $4,314 — a saving of about $2,200, before any effect on Social Security taxation or IRMAA.

• Roth conversions before RMDs start: moving money to a Roth IRA in lower-income years shrinks future RMDs. Take the RMD first: the RMD itself cannot be converted — only money above the RMD can go to a Roth (IRS Publication 590-B). The Roth conversion calculator shows the tax and the effect on IRMAA.
• Watch the income thresholds: RMDs raise the income Medicare uses for IRMAA two years later and can shrink the $6,000 senior deduction.
• Plan the timing: taking the RMD late in the year keeps the money invested longer; taking it early makes sure you don’t forget. Either way, you can have tax withheld from it to cover the bill.

What happens if you miss one

The shortfall is hit with an excise tax of 25%, down from 50% before 2023. If you take the missed amount and file Form 5329 within the correction window, generally by the end of the second year after the year it was due, the tax drops to 10%. If the miss was a reasonable error and you fix it quickly, you can ask the IRS to waive the tax entirely by attaching an explanation to Form 5329.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Retirement plan and IRA required minimum distributions FAQs — Internal Revenue Service
• Publication 590-B, Distributions from IRAs (Appendix B, Table III) — Internal Revenue Service
• Required minimum distribution rules for original owners of retirement accounts — Congressional Research Service
• Updated life expectancy and distribution period tables (final regulations) — Federal Register
• Qualified charitable distributions from individual retirement accounts (IRAs) — Congressional Research Service

Key terms

• Qualified charitable distribution (QCD)
• Required minimum distribution (RMD)