About the RMD Calculator
A required minimum distribution is one division: last December’s balance over a divisor the IRS publishes for your age. The arithmetic is trivial. Getting the right divisor, the right start year and the right deadline is where people lose money — to a 25% excise tax on a missed withdrawal, or to a first-year delay that stacks two RMDs into one tax year.
This calculator carries the full IRS tables rather than an approximation: the Uniform Lifetime Table, the Joint and Last Survivor Table for owners whose spouse is more than ten years younger, and the Single Life Table for inherited accounts. We transcribed them from the final regulation and checked every cell against both the eCFR and Publication 590-B. That check turned up four cells where the publication’s joint table differs from the regulation by 0.1; we use the regulation, which is the law.
It applies the SECURE 2.0 start ages, the still-working exception for workplace plans, the inherited-account 10-year rule with its annual-RMD requirement, and then projects the account forward year by year. The Pro panels price each RMD at your tax bracket, plan qualified charitable distributions up to the 2026 limit of $111,000, test Roth conversions before RMDs begin, and sort multiple accounts into the ones that can be aggregated and the ones that cannot. It is an estimate for planning, not tax advice: annuitised accounts, 5% owners’ plans and trusts as beneficiaries have rules of their own.
Add each account’s December 31 balance. Each RMD is figured separately, then the rules decide where the money may come from.
How to Use the RMD Calculator
Choose My own account for an IRA or workplace plan you funded, or Inherited account if someone left it to you. Enter the balance on December 31 of the year before the RMD year — for a 2026 RMD that is the December 31, 2025 value on your year-end statement — then your birth year and the account type. If your spouse is the sole beneficiary, add their birth year: when they are more than ten years younger, a different IRS table applies and the required amount falls. The result gives the RMD, the divisor and table it came from, the deadline, and a projection of every future year at the return you assume.
The Calculation, Step by Step
An RMD is the prior year-end balance divided by the applicable denominator for your age as of your birthday in the RMD year. Publication 590-B’s own example: a $100,000 IRA, owner turning 75 in 2026, spouse six years younger. The Uniform Lifetime Table divisor at 75 is 24.6, so the RMD is $100,000 ÷ 24.6 = $4,065. Change one fact — the spouse is 64, eleven years younger — and the Joint and Last Survivor Table gives 25.3, for an RMD of $3,953. The divisor shrinks every year (26.5 at 73, 20.2 at 80, 12.2 at 90), so the share of the account you must withdraw rises from about 3.8% to over 8% by 90 even as the balance itself may keep growing.
When RMDs Start Under SECURE 2.0
| Born | RMD age | First RMD year | First deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 – 1958 | 73 | Year you turn 73 | April 1 of the next year |
| 1959 | 73* | 2032 | April 1, 2033 |
| 1960 or later | 75 | Year you turn 75 (2035 at the earliest) | April 1 of the next year |
*The statute literally assigns people born in 1959 both 73 and 75. The 2024 final regulations reserved the question and IRS proposed regulations (REG-103529-23) answer 73; until that is final, 73 is the safe reading and is what this calculator uses. Anyone born before 1951 is already taking RMDs.
The April 1 Option and the Double-RMD Year
Only your first RMD can wait until April 1 of the following year. It sounds like free time, but the second RMD is still due by December 31 of that same year, so both land in one tax return. Worse, the second one is computed on a December 31 balance that the delayed withdrawal has not yet reduced. Two RMDs stacked on top of a pension and Social Security can push part of the income into a higher bracket and raise Medicare premiums two years later. Tick the delay box and the projection shows the double-up year; the Pro tax panel prices the difference.
Workplace plans have one more exception: if you still work for the sponsoring employer and own no more than 5% of it, that plan’s RMDs start in the year you retire. It never applies to IRAs, and it never applies to a plan from a previous employer.
Inherited Accounts and the 10-Year Rule
For owners who died in 2020 or later, most beneficiaries who are not the spouse must empty the account by December 31 of the tenth year after the death. Whether they must also take money out in years one through nine depends on the owner: if the owner died on or after their required beginning date, annual life-expectancy RMDs are required too. The IRS waived the penalty for skipping them in 2021–2024; from 2025 they are enforced. Spouses, the owner’s minor children, disabled or chronically ill beneficiaries and anyone not more than ten years younger than the owner are eligible designated beneficiaries and can stretch payments over their own life expectancy using the Single Life Table. A minor child switches to the 10-year rule at 21.
Missing an RMD, Aggregating, and Giving It Away
- The excise tax is 25% of the shortfall, reduced to 10% if you take the missed amount and file Form 5329 within the correction window. Before SECURE 2.0 it was 50%. A reasonable-cause waiver is still available.
- IRAs aggregate; 401(k)s do not. Figure the RMD for each IRA separately, then take the total from any one or more of them. 403(b)s can likewise be combined with each other. Each 401(k) and 457(b) must pay its own RMD.
- Qualified charitable distributions let IRA owners 70½ or older send up to $111,000 in 2026 (Notice 2025-67) directly to charity. A QCD counts toward the RMD but never enters your income — better than taking the RMD and deducting the gift, especially if you take the standard deduction.
Related tools: the 401(k) Calculator and Roth IRA Calculator cover the saving years that decide how large these withdrawals become; the Social Security Claiming Optimizer helps decide which income to draw first; and the Inheritance & Estate Tax Estimator shows what happens to what is left. Browse every Personal Finance tool.
Estimates for planning, not tax or legal advice. Tables: 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-9 (verified against eCFR and IRS Pub. 590-B, 2025 edition). Start ages: SECURE 2.0 §107 and the 2024 final regulations. Excise rates and correction window: Pub. 590-B. 2026 QCD limit: IRS Notice 2025-67. Annuity contracts, 5% owners, trusts and estates as beneficiaries, and pre-2020 deaths are outside this calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
At what age do I have to start taking RMDs?
Under SECURE 2.0 it depends on your birth year: 73 if you were born from 1951 through 1959, and 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. The law as written gives people born in 1959 both ages; IRS proposed regulations resolve it to 73, and this calculator uses 73. Your first RMD can wait until April 1 of the following year, and every later one is due by December 31.
How is a required minimum distribution calculated?
Divide the account balance on December 31 of last year by the divisor for your age this year. Most owners use the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, where the divisor at 75 is 24.6, so a $100,000 balance means a $4,065 RMD. If your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, the larger Joint and Last Survivor divisor applies and the RMD is smaller.
What happens if I miss an RMD?
The shortfall is subject to a 25% excise tax, reported on Form 5329. It drops to 10% if you take the missed amount and file within the correction window, which generally runs to the end of the second year after the year it was due. The IRS can also waive it entirely for reasonable error if you fix the shortfall and attach an explanation.
Do inherited IRAs have required minimum distributions?
Yes, and the rules depend on who you are. Most non-spouse beneficiaries of someone who died after 2019 must empty the account by the end of the tenth year after the death, and if the owner had already started RMDs they must also take annual distributions in years one to nine. Spouses, minor children, disabled or chronically ill beneficiaries and those not more than 10 years younger than the owner can stretch payments over their life expectancy instead.
Do Roth IRAs and Roth 401(k)s have RMDs?
Not while the original owner is alive. Roth IRAs never had lifetime RMDs, and SECURE 2.0 removed them for designated Roth accounts in 401(k) and 403(b) plans starting in 2024. Beneficiaries who inherit a Roth account are subject to the inherited-account rules, though the withdrawals are usually tax-free.
