How Much Is Your Required Minimum Distribution — and When Does It Start?

It depends on your birth year. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, required minimum distributions begin at 73 for anyone born from 1951 through 1959 and at 75 for anyone born in 1960 or later. (People born in 1950 or earlier started at 72, or 70½ if born before July 1949.) The calculator above tells you your age and your first RMD year from your birth date.

Your first RMD is for the year you reach your required age, and the IRS gives you until April 1 of the following year to take it. Every RMD after that is due December 31. The catch: if you use the April grace period, you'll take two RMDs in that second year — the delayed first one and that year's own — which can push you into a higher tax bracket and raise your Medicare premium two years later.

Take your account balance on December 31 of the previous year and divide it by the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table divisor for the age you reach during the year: 26.5 at 73, 24.6 at 75, 22.0 at 78, 20.2 at 80, 16.0 at 85, 12.2 at 90. The divisor falls every year, so the percentage you must withdraw rises — about 3.8% of the balance at 73, 5% at 80, 8% at 90. If your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, a joint life table with larger divisors applies and your RMD is smaller.

Roth IRAs have never had lifetime RMDs, and since 2024 neither do Roth 401(k)s and 403(b)s. That's one reason converting part of a traditional IRA to a Roth in the years before your RMD age can lower the required withdrawals later — the converted amount is taxed in the year of conversion, but it never has to come out on the IRS's schedule again.

From your current employer's plan, usually not until you retire — as long as you don't own more than 5% of the company and the plan allows it. That exception never applies to IRAs or to plans from former employers, which follow the normal schedule.

The penalty for a shortfall is a 25% excise tax on the amount you should have taken, reduced to 10% if you correct it within two years, and the IRS can waive it for a reasonable cause. From age 70½ you can send up to the annual limit directly from an IRA to a qualified charity as a qualified charitable distribution: it counts toward your RMD and is never included in your taxable income — often the most tax-efficient way to give.