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What Is a Required Minimum Distribution?
A required minimum distribution (RMD) is the minimum amount the IRS requires you to withdraw each year from tax-deferred retirement accounts once you reach the mandatory start age. These accounts, traditional IRAs, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, and SIMPLE IRAs, were funded with pre-tax dollars, meaning you have not yet paid income tax on those assets. The government uses RMD rules to ensure that deferred taxes eventually get collected rather than allowing balances to compound tax-free indefinitely.
Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, signed into law in December 2022, the RMD start age was raised to 73 for individuals born in 1951 or later, up from 72 under the original SECURE Act and 70.5 under prior law. A further increase to age 75 is scheduled for those born in 1960 or later, taking effect in 2033. This shift has given many retirees additional years of tax-deferred growth before mandatory withdrawals begin, which is a meaningful planning opportunity. According to the IRS guidance on required minimum distributions, the rules apply to all traditional IRA owners and to participants in most employer retirement plans, whether or not they are still working.
The required minimum distribution calculator above computes your RMD using your prior December 31 account balance divided by the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table distribution period for your age. For a 75-year-old with a $600,000 balance, the distribution period is 24.6, yielding an RMD of approximately $24,390. That amount is added to your taxable income for the year, so understanding the number well in advance allows you to plan withholding, Roth conversions, and charitable giving strategies around the withdrawal. Use our retirement calculator alongside this tool to model your full retirement income picture.
How to Calculate Your RMD: The IRS Uniform Lifetime Table
The IRA required minimum distribution calculatorformula is straightforward: RMD = December 31 Prior-Year Balance ÷ Distribution Period. The distribution period comes from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, which was updated in 2022 to reflect longer life expectancies. The updated table applies to distributions beginning on or after January 1, 2022.
The IRS publishes the complete Uniform Lifetime Table in IRS Publication 590-B (Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements). Key distribution period values from the updated table include: age 73 = 26.5, age 75 = 24.6, age 80 = 20.2, age 85 = 16.0, and age 90 = 12.2. Notice that the distribution period decreases each year, which means your RMD as a percentage of your balance increases steadily as you age. At age 73, your RMD is about 3.77% of your balance. By age 90, it rises to about 8.2%. Reviewing the multi-year projection in our RMD calculator clearly shows this escalating percentage, which is an important dynamic for retirement income planning.
Most account owners use the Uniform Lifetime Table. There is one exception: if your sole beneficiary is a spouse who is more than 10 years younger than you, you may use the Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy Table instead, which produces a larger distribution period and therefore a smaller RMD. This can be a meaningful difference for couples with large age gaps. The 401k RMD calculator above applies the Uniform Lifetime Table, and notes when to consult a tax advisor for inherited account or spousal scenarios.
RMD Penalties, Deadlines, and How to Avoid Costly Mistakes
The consequences of missing an RMD are severe. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, the penalty for failing to take a required minimum distribution is 25% of the amount not withdrawn, down from the previous 50% but still substantial. If your RMD is $22,000 and you withdraw nothing, the penalty is $5,500. Furthermore, you still owe income tax on the full RMD amount when you eventually take it. The penalty can be reduced to 10% if you correct the missed RMD within the IRS correction window, generally within two years.
The annual deadline for taking an RMD is December 31. The only exception is your very first RMD: if you turn 73 during the calendar year, you have until April 1 of the following year to take that first distribution. However, if you delay your first RMD to April 1, you will then need to take a second RMD by December 31 of that same year, resulting in two taxable withdrawals in one year. This double-RMD scenario can push you into a higher tax bracket and trigger surcharges on Medicare premiums (known as IRMAA), so many retirees choose to take their first RMD by December 31 of the year they turn 73 rather than delay.
One effective strategy to reduce the income tax burden from RMDs is a Roth conversion: moving pre-tax money from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in the years before RMDs begin. Every dollar converted reduces the future RMD balance. While the converted amount is taxable in the conversion year, it permanently exits the RMD system. Use our Roth IRA calculator to model the long-term impact of Roth conversions on your retirement tax situation.
RMDs and Taxes: Planning for the Income Impact
Every dollar of your RMD is added to your ordinary income for the year and taxed at your marginal federal rate, plus any applicable state income tax. For retirees with significant pre-tax balances, RMDs can generate substantial taxable income even when they do not need the cash. A retiree with $1.2 million in a traditional IRA at age 75 faces an RMD of roughly $48,780, enough to potentially trigger the 22% or even 24% federal bracket depending on their other income sources.
High RMD income can also trigger Medicare Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amounts (IRMAA), which are premium surcharges on Medicare Parts B and D based on income from two years prior. For 2024, IRMAA surcharges begin when individual modified adjusted gross income exceeds $103,000. A large RMD year two years before a Medicare enrollment decision can significantly increase Medicare costs, so long-range planning is essential. According to Investopedia's overview of required minimum distributions, proactive management of pre-tax balances in the decade before RMDs begin is one of the most impactful things retirees can do to minimize lifetime taxes.
For those who are charitably inclined, a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) allows IRA owners aged 70.5 or older to transfer up to $105,000 annually directly to qualified charities. The QCD satisfies all or part of the RMD obligation but is excluded from taxable income, an advantage over taking the RMD and then donating the after-tax proceeds. This strategy is particularly valuable for retirees who take the standard deduction, since it delivers a tax benefit that itemizing charitable deductions would not. Use our 401k calculator to estimate the pre-tax balance you are likely to carry into retirement, which directly determines the scale of your future RMD obligations.
Using the Multi-Year RMD Projection for Long-Term Planning
The multi-year RMD projection in our required minimum distribution calculator helps you visualize how distributions evolve from age 73 through 90. Even with positive investment returns, the combination of annual RMDs and a shrinking distribution period creates a trajectory where RMDs represent a growing share of the account balance over time. For many retirees, this visualization clarifies why Roth conversions, strategic spending from taxable accounts, and other pre-retirement strategies can have such a large long-term impact.
The projection works by first growing your current balance from your present age to age 73 at the specified annual return rate (including any ongoing contributions in the pre-RMD years). It then applies RMDs year by year: each year's starting balance grows during the year, the RMD is taken at year-end, and the resulting after-RMD balance becomes next year's starting point. If your annual return rate is higher than the RMD percentage for your age, the balance can actually grow despite distributions; but this becomes increasingly unlikely at advanced ages as the distribution percentage rises.
Building a complete retirement income plan requires understanding how all your income sources interact: Social Security, pension income, RMDs, and discretionary withdrawals from taxable accounts. Explore our full suite of retirement and financial planners to model each piece of your retirement income picture and stress-test your plan against different return and longevity scenarios. The required minimum distribution calculator is a foundational tool in that analysis, because RMDs often become the single largest source of taxable income for retirees with substantial pre-tax savings.