IRS RMD Tables 2026: Uniform Lifetime, Single Life & Joint Life Explained

This is the table nearly everyone uses for their own RMD. It assumes a hypothetical beneficiary exactly 10 years younger than you, which is why it applies regardless of your actual marital status or beneficiary's age — except the Table II exception below.

If your sole primary beneficiary is your spouse and they are more than 10 years younger than you, you use Table II instead of Table III. Because it factors in two life expectancies rather than one, it produces a larger divisor — and therefore a smaller RMD — than the Uniform Lifetime Table would at the same age.

That's roughly a 3% smaller required withdrawal purely from qualifying for Table II. The exception exists because a much-younger spouse beneficiary is expected to draw on the account for far longer, so the IRS lets the account stretch out more slowly. If your spouse is your beneficiary but not more than 10 years younger, you still use the standard Table III — the exception only applies past the 10-year gap.

Beneficiaries of inherited IRAs — not original account owners — use the Single Life Expectancy Table. You look up your factor once, for your age in the year after the original owner's death, then subtract 1 from it every subsequent year rather than looking it up again.

Because Table I's factors are lower than Table III's at any comparable age, inherited-IRA RMDs are typically a larger percentage of the balance than an owner's own RMD would be at that same age — one more reason mixing up the two tables produces meaningfully wrong numbers, not just a rounding difference.

If you're comparing the numbers above to something you remember from before 2022, they'll look different — and that's expected, not an error. The IRS updated all three life-expectancy tables effective January 1, 2022, to reflect Americans' longer life expectancies. The new tables have larger factors at every age, which mechanically means smaller required RMDs than the pre-2022 tables produced for the same balance and age.

• Age 75 under the old (pre-2022) Uniform Lifetime Table: factor 22.9
• Age 75 under the current (2022+) Uniform Lifetime Table: factor 24.6

On a $1,000,000 balance, that's the difference between a $43,668 RMD (old table) and a $40,650 RMD (current table) — about $3,000 less required each year, purely from the table update, before accounting for the separate SECURE 2.0 age changes (73 vs. the old 72 or 70½).

Which RMD table should I use?

Almost everyone taking their own RMD uses the Uniform Lifetime Table (Table III). Use the Joint and Last Survivor Table (Table II) only if your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger. Beneficiaries of inherited IRAs use the Single Life Expectancy Table (Table I).

What changed in the 2022 RMD tables?

The IRS increased the life-expectancy factors across all three tables to reflect longer life expectancies, effective January 1, 2022. Larger factors produce smaller required distributions at every age compared to the pre-2022 tables.

Can I use the Uniform Lifetime Table for an inherited IRA?

No. Inherited IRA beneficiaries must use the Single Life Expectancy Table, which has smaller factors (and therefore larger required percentages) than the Uniform Lifetime Table at the same age. Using the wrong table understates the RMD and risks a missed-RMD penalty.

How much smaller is my RMD with the Joint and Last Survivor Table?

It depends on both spouses' ages, but the IRS's own example shows roughly a 3% smaller RMD (factor 25.3 vs. 24.6 at age 75) for an 11-year age gap — the gap has to exceed 10 years to qualify at all.

Where can I find the full IRS tables?

All three complete tables are published in IRS Publication 590-B, Appendix B. Our RMD Calculator and Inherited IRA RMD Calculator both apply the correct table automatically based on your situation.