RMD Calculator

This RMD calculator computes your Required Minimum Distribution using the actual IRS Uniform Lifetime Table (Treasury Regulation §1.401(a)(9)-9, Table III) — the same divisor your custodian uses, not an approximation.

Worked example: a $500,000 traditional IRA balance for someone turning 75 in 2026 uses a life expectancy divisor of 24.6, producing an RMD of $20,325.20 — about 4.07% of the account balance. That matches the IRS's own worked example in Publication 590-B almost exactly: a $100,000 balance at age 75 produces $4,065.04, which is exactly one-fifth of our $500,000 example scaled proportionally.

Under SECURE 2.0, your RMD start age depends on birth year: 73 if you were born 1951–1959, 75 if born 1960 or later. Missing an RMD carries a 25% excise tax on the shortfall (reduced to 10% if corrected within two years). If your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, you'd use the Joint and Last Survivor Table instead, which isn't modeled here. Just inherited an account rather than owning it yourself? Use the Inherited IRA RMD Calculator instead — beneficiaries use a different table and different rules entirely.

Per IRS guidance on required minimum distributions, the formula is a single division:

The divisor comes from the Uniform Lifetime Table, indexed to your age as of your birthday in the distribution year:

The divisor shrinks every year, so even if your balance holds flat, your RMD takes a growing percentage of it over time.

Your first RMD has a special grace period: you can delay it until April 1 of the year after you reach your start age. Every subsequent RMD is due by December 31. That grace period is a common trap — delaying your first RMD into the following spring means two RMDs land in the same calendar year (the delayed one by April 1, plus that year's regular one by December 31), which can push you into a higher tax bracket. Most people are better off taking the first RMD in the actual start-age year rather than delaying it.

Traditional IRAs (including SEP and SIMPLE IRAs) can be aggregated — total all the balances, calculate one RMD, and withdraw it from any single account or combination. Workplace plans like 401(k)s and 403(b)s can't be aggregated with each other; each plan's RMD must come out of that specific plan.

Required minimum distributions start at age 73 (rising to 75 in 2033 under SECURE 2.0). The math uses the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table:

Miss it and the IRS penalty is 25% of the shortfall (reduced to 10% if corrected within two years). The first RMD can be delayed until April 1 of the following year, but that means taking two RMDs in one tax year — often pushing you into a higher bracket. Inherited IRAs use different rules entirely (most non-spouse beneficiaries must empty the account within 10 years). Estimate the tax hit on your distribution with the Income Tax Calculator.

Your RMD is your account balance on December 31 of the prior year divided by the life-expectancy factor for your age from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, published in IRS Publication 590-B. This is the table nearly everyone uses — the exceptions are beneficiaries of inherited accounts (Single Life Table, below) and owners whose sole beneficiary is a spouse more than 10 years younger (Joint Life Table, which produces a smaller RMD).

Download the 2026 RMD table as a one-page PDF — all ages 72 to 120+, with the percentage of your balance each divisor works out to.

Worked example, verified against this calculator: a $500,000 traditional IRA at age 75 divides by the factor 24.6, giving an RMD of $20,325 — a 4.07% withdrawal. Note how the percentage climbs each year: about 3.8% at 73, roughly 5% at 80, and past 8% by 90. That acceleration is why large pre-tax balances create growing taxable income later in retirement, and why many retirees pair RMD planning with our federal tax bracket calculator and Roth conversion strategies in the gap years before 73.

If you inherited an IRA from someone who died in 2020 or later and you are not the spouse, the SECURE Act's 10-year rule almost certainly applies to you: the entire account must be emptied by December 31 of the 10th year after the owner's death. Whether you must also take annual RMDs in years 1–9 depends on one question — had the original owner reached their required beginning date (RBD, generally April 1 after the year they turned 73)?

Timing matters in 2026: after the IRS waived penalties for missed within-window RMDs from 2021–2024, the final regulations put full enforcement in effect starting in 2025. Beneficiaries who inherited in 2020–2021 are now mid-window, and a missed annual RMD triggers a 25% excise tax on the shortfall (reduced to 10% if corrected within the correction window). See the IRS overview of RMDs for IRA beneficiaries for the official rules.

How the beneficiary calculation works (and how this calculator does it): in your first distribution year — the year after death — you look up your age in the IRS Single Life Table. Each following year you subtract 1 from that starting factor rather than looking it up again. A 55-year-old beneficiary of a $500,000 inherited IRA uses the factor 31.6 in year one, producing an RMD of $15,823; in year two the factor becomes 30.6, and so on. Switch this calculator to "Inherited IRA" mode to run your own numbers, and use the safe withdrawal rate calculator to plan what the distributions can sustainably fund.

One strategy note that catches many beneficiaries: the annual RMD in years 1–9 is a floor, not a plan. Spreading withdrawals roughly evenly across the decade usually beats taking minimums for nine years and a giant taxable lump in year 10, because the lump can push you several tax brackets higher. Deterministic modeling with the income tax calculator shows the bracket impact of each schedule.

The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 rewrote several RMD fundamentals, and all of them are reflected in this calculator's logic:

• Start age is 73 for anyone born 1951–1959, rising to 75 in 2033 for those born in 1960 or later. (Before 2020 it was 70½; the original SECURE Act moved it to 72.)
• The missed-RMD penalty dropped from 50% to 25% of the shortfall — and to 10% if you fix the miss promptly by withdrawing the shortfall and filing Form 5329.
• Roth 401(k) and Roth 403(b) accounts no longer have lifetime RMDs, matching Roth IRAs. Beneficiaries who inherit Roth accounts are still subject to the beneficiary distribution rules, though inherited Roth withdrawals are generally tax-free.
• Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) from IRAs count toward your RMD while staying out of adjusted gross income — which can keep you under Medicare IRMAA surcharge thresholds and reduce how much of your Social Security is taxable. The QCD limit is indexed annually.

Your first RMD year has a one-time option: you can delay it until April 1 of the following year. The catch is that you'd then take two RMDs in one tax year — the delayed one plus that year's regular one — which frequently backfires by stacking taxable income. Run both scenarios through the tax bracket calculator before choosing. Primary sources: IRS RMD FAQs and IRS Publication 590-B.

This free online RMD calculator uses the actual IRS Uniform Lifetime Table — the same table in IRS Publication 590-B — to compute your exact required minimum distribution for 2026. No login, no account, no financial advisor gating. Enter your December 31 account balance and your age, and the calculator returns your RMD amount, the life expectancy divisor used, and how your required percentage rises each year from now to age 100.

The most common question is which table to use. For most account owners — anyone whose sole beneficiary is not a spouse more than 10 years younger — the answer is the Uniform Lifetime Table (Table III in IRS Pub 590-B), and that's what this RMD calculator IRS tool uses. If you inherited an IRA from someone who wasn't your spouse, the rules are entirely different — use the Inherited IRA RMD Calculator, which models the SECURE Act 10-year depletion schedule using the Single Life Expectancy Table.

Under SECURE 2.0, your RMD start age depends on your birth year. If you were born 1951–1959, RMDs begin at 73. If you were born 1960 or later, they begin at 75. The penalty for missing an RMD is steep: 25% of the amount you should have withdrawn (reduced to 10% if corrected within two years under SECURE 2.0's correction window).

Two worked examples using 2026 IRS tables:

• Age 73, $750,000 balance → divisor 26.5 → RMD: $28,302
• Age 75, $1,200,000 balance → divisor 24.6 → RMD: $48,780

Both numbers are verified against the formula code using 2026 IRS constants. Note that the RMD percentage rises every year as the divisor shrinks — at age 75 you're required to distribute 4.07% of the prior year-end balance; by age 85 that rises to 6.25%.

If your sole beneficiary is a spouse more than 10 years younger than you, the IRS has you use the Joint and Last Survivor Table (Table II in Publication 590-B), which gives a smaller RMD. This calculator uses the Uniform Lifetime Table only, so in that case it overstates your RMD.

For people born in 1959, the law gives two possible start ages (73 and 75). The 2024 final regulations left that question open; the IRS's proposed rule sets it at 73, which is what this calculator uses.