Can I Take My Total RMD From One Account? IRA vs. 401(k) Rules

Yes, you can take your total RMD from one account, but only when the accounts belong to a group the IRS lets you aggregate. If all your required withdrawals come from Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRAs, you can add the individual amounts together and pull the whole sum out of a single IRA. The same works across multiple 403(b) accounts. It does not work for 401(k) or 457(b) plans, where each plan’s RMD must come out of that specific plan.¹

Traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs Can Be Combined

Federal regulations let you pool the RMD obligations across all your Traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs. You calculate each account’s required amount separately, using its prior year-end balance, and then you can take the combined total from whichever IRA you choose. Split it between two accounts, take it all from one, or spread it across every account you own. The choice is yours.¹

This flexibility is genuinely useful. If one IRA holds bonds you want to keep and another holds a stock position you would rather trim, you can draw the whole RMD from the account you want to shrink. The regulatory basis is Treasury Regulation Section 1.408-8, which explicitly permits the separately calculated amounts to be totaled and taken from any one or more of the owner’s IRAs.²

Roth IRAs sit outside this system. The original owner of a Roth IRA has no lifetime RMD, and the same now applies to designated Roth accounts inside 401(k) and 403(b) plans.¹ A Roth withdrawal cannot be used to satisfy a Traditional IRA RMD. Doing that leaves the Traditional obligation unmet and triggers an excise tax.

403(b) Accounts Aggregate Among Themselves

The 403(b) plan, common for teachers, hospital workers, and nonprofit employees, is the one workplace plan that behaves like an IRA for aggregation purposes. If you hold multiple 403(b) accounts, you can add up the individual RMDs and take the combined amount from one or more of them.³

But 403(b) RMDs live in their own silo. You cannot satisfy a 403(b) RMD with an IRA withdrawal, and you cannot satisfy an IRA RMD with a 403(b) withdrawal. A 403(b) obligation also cannot be combined with a 401(k) or 457(b) obligation. The aggregation is real, but it stops at the edge of the 403(b) category.

401(k) and 457(b) Plans: One Plan, One RMD

Workplace retirement plans other than 403(b)s take a stricter approach. If you have three old 401(k) accounts from former employers, you must calculate and withdraw the correct RMD from each one separately. Adding them together and pulling the total from a single plan is not allowed. The same rule applies to 457(b) plans.¹

That is why people who accumulate several old 401(k) balances often roll them into a single Traditional IRA before RMDs begin. Once the money sits in an IRA, the flexible aggregation rules take over. Consolidation is one of the strongest practical reasons to clean up scattered workplace accounts well before you reach age 73.

One narrow exception applies while you are still working: if you are participating in your current employer’s plan and you do not own more than 5% of the business, you can generally delay RMDs from that specific plan until the year you retire.¹ The delay covers only that plan. Your IRAs and any old 401(k)s from previous jobs still require distributions on the normal schedule.

Inherited Accounts Are Walled Off

An inherited retirement account is not part of your personal RMD pool. You cannot cover the RMD on an inherited IRA by pulling extra from your own Traditional IRA, and you cannot do the reverse. The IRS treats these as entirely separate obligations.²

There is limited aggregation inside the inherited category. If you inherited multiple IRAs from the same person, you can combine those RMDs and take the total from one of the inherited accounts. If you inherited IRAs from two different people, each set stands alone and has to be handled independently. Mixing inherited obligations from different decedents, or blending them with your own IRA RMDs, is one of the most common mistakes the IRS sees.

Most non-spouse beneficiaries who inherited an IRA after 2019 also face the 10-year rule, which requires the account to be emptied by the end of the tenth year after the owner’s death. Where the original owner had already reached their required beginning date, the beneficiary generally must also take annual distributions during that window, using the Single Life Expectancy Table.⁴ Eligible designated beneficiaries, such as a surviving spouse or a minor child, follow different schedules.

You Still Have to Calculate Each Account Separately

Even when you plan to consolidate the withdrawal into one account, the math has to be done account by account. The formula is simple: divide the account’s prior-year-end balance by a life expectancy factor. Your custodian reports that year-end value on Form 5498, and year-end statements usually show it too.⁵

The factor comes from the Uniform Lifetime Table in IRS Publication 590-B. You look up your age as of your birthday this year. A 73-year-old divides by 26.5, a 78-year-old by 22.0, and an 85-year-old by 16.0.⁶ If your prior-year-end IRA balance was $500,000 and you turn 75 this year, you divide by 24.6, which gives a required withdrawal of roughly $20,325.

One exception changes the table. If your spouse is the sole beneficiary of your IRA and is more than 10 years younger than you, use the Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy Table instead. That table produces a larger divisor and a smaller required withdrawal.⁶ Everyone else uses the Uniform Lifetime Table regardless of who is named as beneficiary.

Once you have each account’s number, you can aggregate within the permitted groupings and withdraw from a single account.

Watch-Outs When You Pull the Whole RMD From One Account

A required minimum distribution is not an eligible rollover distribution. You cannot take the RMD and move it into another IRA through a 60-day rollover or a direct transfer. The regulation carves the RMD portion out before any rollover eligibility is assessed.⁷ If you accidentally roll an RMD amount over, the IRS treats it as an excess contribution to the receiving account and applies a separate penalty. When you are consolidating accounts, satisfy the current year’s RMD first and roll over only what remains.⁸

Withholding also gets larger when you concentrate the whole amount in one distribution. The default federal withholding rate on an IRA distribution is 10% of the gross amount.⁹ You can raise or lower that by submitting Form W-4R to your custodian. If your marginal bracket sits well above 10%, the default will leave you short at tax time. Matching the withholding to your actual bracket, or making a quarterly estimated payment, prevents an April surprise. Some states apply their own mandatory withholding on retirement distributions.

Keep records. After the distribution, your custodian issues Form 1099-R showing the gross amount, taxable amount, and any tax withheld.¹⁰ If you took a consolidated RMD from one IRA to cover several, save the per-account calculations. The IRS may ask for that breakdown if the reported distributions do not appear to match the year-end balances across your accounts.

Quick Reference: Which Accounts Can Be Grouped

Traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs: calculate separately, withdraw from any one or more of them.
403(b) accounts: calculate separately, withdraw from any one or more of them. Cannot be combined with IRA or 401(k) amounts.
401(k) and 457(b) plans: each plan’s RMD must come out of that plan. No aggregation.
Inherited IRAs from the same person: can be aggregated with each other, but not with your own IRAs or with inherited accounts from a different person.
Roth IRAs and designated Roth accounts: no lifetime RMD for the original owner.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
2
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.408-8
3
Internal Revenue Service. RMD Comparison Chart (IRAs vs. Defined Contribution Plans)
4
Internal Revenue Service. Required Minimum Distributions for IRA Beneficiaries
5
Internal Revenue Service. Form 5498 – IRA Contribution Information
6
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B, Distributions From Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
7
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.402(c)-2 – Eligible Rollover Distributions
8
Internal Revenue Service. Rollovers of Retirement Plan and IRA Distributions
9
Internal Revenue Service. Pensions and Annuity Withholding
10
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-R, Distributions From Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, etc.