RMD Calculator

Written by the CalculatorBoss Finance Team · Every figure on this page is checked against an independent reference implementation before release · Last updated August 2026

What a required minimum distribution actually is

Money in a traditional IRA or 401(k) went in untaxed and has grown untaxed ever since. That arrangement was never meant to be permanent, so from a certain age the IRS requires you to take a slice out each year and pay income tax on it. That slice is the required minimum distribution.

It is a floor, not a ceiling. You can always withdraw more, and taking more this year does not reduce next year’s requirement — the calculation restarts from the balance every December 31. What you cannot do is take less, because the penalty for falling short is steep.

The rule applies to tax-deferred accounts only: traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, 401(k), most 403(b) and governmental 457(b) plans, and profit-sharing plans. Roth IRAs are outside it entirely while you are alive, and since 2024 so are Roth 401(k) and Roth 403(b) balances.

The formula, and the two numbers in it

There are only two inputs, which is what makes RMDs simple to compute and easy to get wrong for other reasons.

The balance is a fixed historical fact: what the account was worth at the close of the previous year. A market crash in June does not lower this year’s requirement, and a rally does not raise it. That is a real risk in a falling market, and the reason some people take the distribution early in the year rather than in December.

The distribution period comes from a published IRS table and depends only on your age — and, in one specific case, your spouse’s. It is a life-expectancy figure, not a guess about your account. At 73 it is 26.5 and at 95 it is 8.9, so the fraction you must take rises steadily with age.

Expressed as a percentage, the requirement starts at about 3.8% of the balance at 73, passes 5% at 80, reaches roughly 8.2% at 90 and about 15.6% at 100. The floor period is 2.0 at 120 and over.

The three IRS tables, and which one is yours

Publication 590-B, Appendix B, contains three tables. Picking the wrong one is the most common source of a wrong answer.

• Table III, Uniform Lifetime. The default. Use it if you are unmarried, or married to someone within ten years of your age, or married to someone more than ten years younger who is not the sole beneficiary of the account.
• Table II, Joint Life and Last Survivor. Use it only when your spouse is the sole beneficiary and is more than ten years younger. It runs on both ages and gives a longer period, so a smaller distribution. A 75-year-old with a 51-year-old spouse gets a period of 35.8 rather than 24.6 — a distribution roughly a third smaller.
• Table I, Single Life. For beneficiaries drawing from an account they inherited. It is not used by original owners, and this calculator does not cover inherited accounts.

All three were rewritten effective 2022 to reflect longer life expectancies. Every period got longer, which quietly lowered required distributions at every age. If you are working from a table printed before 2022, the figures are out of date.

The Uniform Lifetime Table in full

This is Table III as it stands for 2022 onward, straight from Publication 590-B. Divide the previous December 31 balance by the figure for your age.

Deadlines, and the trap in the first year

Every distribution is due by December 31 of the year it is for. There is one exception, and it catches people out.

Your first RMD can be delayed until April 1 of the following year. That sounds generous, and sometimes it is, but delaying means the first and second distributions both land in the same tax year. Two years of taxable income in one filing can push you into a higher bracket, raise the taxable share of your Social Security, and trigger a Medicare IRMAA surcharge two years later. Work out both ways before deciding; the deferral is only worth taking if this year’s income is unusually high.

One more timing point: if you are still working past the RMD age, are not a 5% owner of the business, and your plan allows it, you can delay distributions from that employer’s plan until you retire. IRAs and old plans from previous employers carry on regardless.

Which accounts you can add together

The rule about aggregating is genuinely confusing, so it is worth being precise.

• IRAs pool. Work out the required amount for each traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRA, add them up, and take the total from whichever one you like — or split it however you want.
• 403(b) accounts pool with each other, but not with IRAs.
• 401(k) and 457(b) plans do not pool at all. Each plan needs its own distribution taken from that plan.
• Inherited accounts stand alone. They cannot be combined with your own, and two accounts inherited from different people stay separate from one another.

Calculating the right total and then taking it from the wrong bucket still counts as a shortfall in the account that was underpaid, which is exactly the kind of error the penalty is designed to catch.

What happens if you miss one

The excise tax is 25% of the amount you should have withdrawn and did not. SECURE 2.0 halved it from the old 50%, and it drops to 10% if you take the missed distribution and file within a two-year correction window.

It is also waivable. You report the shortfall on Form 5329, pay or request relief, and attach a statement setting out that the failure was due to reasonable error and describing the steps you have taken to fix it. The IRS grants these often enough that it is always worth asking, but nothing about it is automatic, and a custodian’s mistake does not remove your liability — the obligation is the account holder’s.

Ways people lower the tax bill

The distribution itself is not optional, but its tax consequences can be managed.

• Qualified charitable distributions. From age 70½ you can send money straight from an IRA to a qualifying charity, up to an annual limit that is indexed for inflation. It counts toward the RMD and stays out of your adjusted gross income altogether, which matters for Social Security taxation and Medicare surcharges as well as for income tax.
• Roth conversions before RMDs begin. Converting in the low-income years between retiring and turning 73 shrinks the balance that the tables will later divide, and Roth balances are outside the RMD system for life. The conversion is taxable in the year you do it, so the gap years are the window.
• Withholding from the distribution. Tax withheld from an RMD is treated as paid evenly across the year, which can tidy up estimated payments.
• Still-working delay. If it applies to you, it postpones distributions from that employer’s plan and nothing else.

What this calculator does not cover

• Inherited accounts. Beneficiary distributions use Table I and, for most non-spouse beneficiaries since 2020, a ten-year rule instead. Different calculation, different table.
• Tax. The figure shown is the gross withdrawal. What you keep depends on your federal bracket, your state, and how the distribution interacts with Social Security and Medicare surcharges.
• Multiple accounts. Enter a combined balance only where the rules allow the accounts to be pooled — see the section above.
• Spouses under 20. The Joint Life table printed in Publication 590-B starts at age 20. If yours is younger, the calculator uses 20, which gives a slightly shorter period and therefore a slightly larger required amount than the full regulation table would.
• The projection. Future years assume a steady return and that you withdraw exactly the minimum at year end. Real markets do neither, and Congress has already changed the start age twice in four years.
• Annuitised balances and qualifying longevity annuity contracts, which follow separate rules.

Frequently asked questions

At what age do RMDs start?

Age 73 if you were born between 1951 and 1959, and age 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. The SECURE Act of 2019 moved the age from 70½ to 72, and SECURE 2.0 in December 2022 moved it again to 73, with the further rise to 75 scheduled for 2033. The calculator picks the right one from your year of birth. If you were born before 1951 you are already past the threshold under the older rules.

How is the required minimum distribution calculated?

Take the balance of the account on December 31 of the previous year and divide it by the distribution period for your age from the IRS table. Nothing else enters the arithmetic — not what the account is worth today, not what you withdrew last year, not your income. At age 75 the Uniform Lifetime period is 24.6, so a balance of $300,000 gives a required distribution of $12,195.12 for that year.

What is the RMD for a $500,000 IRA at 73?

The Uniform Lifetime period at 73 is 26.5, so $500,000 divided by 26.5 is $18,867.92. That is about 3.8% of the balance. The percentage climbs every year as the period shortens: at 80 it is roughly 5.0%, at 90 about 8.2%, and at 100 around 15.6%. The dollar amount does not necessarily rise that fast, because the balance is usually falling at the same time.

Which IRS table should I use for my RMD?

Almost everyone uses Table III, the Uniform Lifetime table. Table II, Joint Life and Last Survivor, applies only if your spouse is the sole beneficiary of the account and is more than ten years younger than you, and it gives a longer period and therefore a smaller distribution. Table I, Single Life, is for beneficiaries taking distributions from an account they inherited, which this calculator does not cover. Switch the beneficiary answer above and the table in use is named in the result.

Do I have to take an RMD from every account separately?

It depends on the account type. You can add up the required amounts for all your traditional IRAs and take the whole total from any one of them. SEP and SIMPLE IRAs can be aggregated with those. Employer plans cannot: each 401(k) requires its own distribution, taken from that plan. Inherited accounts follow their own rules and cannot be combined with your own. Working out the total correctly and then withdrawing from the wrong account is a common and expensive mistake.

What is the penalty for missing an RMD?

An excise tax of 25% of whatever you failed to withdraw. SECURE 2.0 cut it from 50%, and it falls further to 10% if you correct the shortfall within a two-year window. You report it on Form 5329, and you can request a waiver by attaching a statement explaining that the shortfall was due to reasonable error and that you have fixed it. The IRS does grant these, but it is not automatic.

Do Roth accounts have RMDs?

A Roth IRA has no required distributions during the original owner's lifetime, which is one of the main reasons people convert. Roth 401(k) and Roth 403(b) accounts used to require them, but SECURE 2.0 removed that from 2024 onward, so they are now treated like Roth IRAs while you are alive. Inherited Roth accounts are different — beneficiaries generally do face distribution requirements, usually the ten-year rule.

Can I reduce the tax on my RMD?

Three approaches are common in the United States. A qualified charitable distribution lets someone aged 70½ or older send up to an annual limit straight from an IRA to a charity: it counts toward the RMD and never appears in your adjusted gross income, which also protects against Medicare IRMAA surcharges. Converting to a Roth in lower-income years before RMDs begin shrinks the balance the tables will later divide. And withholding tax from the distribution itself can cover the year's estimated payments. Each has conditions worth checking with a tax professional first.

This is an educational estimate, not tax, legal or investment advice. Distribution periods come from IRS Publication 590-B, Appendix B, as revised for 2022 onward; the calculator covers accounts you own yourself and not inherited ones, and the figure shown is a gross withdrawal before any tax. Congress has changed the start age twice since 2019 and can change it again. Confirm your own position against IRS Publication 590-B and speak to a tax professional before you withdraw. More about how we build and check these tools is on our About page, and our Privacy Policy explains what we do and do not collect — nothing you type here leaves your browser.