Yes, the required minimum distribution does increase with age. The IRS builds that climb into the formula: each year, it divides your prior year-end balance by a smaller number, so the required withdrawal percentage rises every birthday even if your balance stays flat. At age 73, roughly 3.77% of your balance must come out. By 90, that figure is about 8.2%. By 100, it’s more than 15%.
How the Divisor Shrinks Every Year
Your annual RMD is your total account balance on December 31 of the prior year divided by a “distribution period” the IRS assigns to your current age.1Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs That distribution period lives in the Uniform Lifetime Table, and it drops with each year of age.2eCFR. 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-9 – Life Expectancy and Uniform Lifetime Tables A smaller divisor produces a larger required percentage.
A few ages from the table show the trend:
- Age 73: divisor of 26.5, roughly 3.77% of your balance
- Age 80: divisor of 20.2, roughly 4.95%
- Age 85: divisor of 16.0, roughly 6.25%
- Age 90: divisor of 12.2, roughly 8.20%
- Age 100: divisor of 6.4, roughly 15.63%
The logic behind the rising percentage is a matter of tax policy. The government let you defer income tax when you contributed to the account. It wants that revenue back over your remaining lifetime, so the required percentage ratchets up each year to make sure the account empties before the table runs out.3Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
When Dollar Amounts Move Differently Than Percentages
The required percentage climbs every year. The actual dollar amount does not always follow, because the calculation uses your prior year-end balance.1Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs If the market drops 20% in a given year, your next RMD is calculated against a significantly smaller number, and the dollar amount can fall even though the percentage went up.
The reverse is where most of the sticker shock comes from. A strong market year combined with an increasing withdrawal percentage can produce a surprisingly large RMD and a matching tax bill. Retirees who saw strong portfolio growth in their 70s sometimes find their RMDs pushing them into a higher tax bracket by their mid-80s.
One Way to Slow the Climb: A Much Younger Spouse
If your sole beneficiary is your spouse and they are more than 10 years younger than you, the IRS lets you use the Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy Table instead of the Uniform Lifetime Table.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions From Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) The joint table produces a larger divisor, which means a smaller required withdrawal. It’s one of the few ways to genuinely slow down the rising RMD percentage without changing your account structure.
Accounts Where the Rising Percentage Doesn’t Apply
Roth IRAs are exempt from RMDs entirely during the original owner’s lifetime.1Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs You never have to take a distribution from a Roth IRA while you’re alive, no matter how old you get.
Designated Roth accounts inside employer plans such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s were historically subject to RMDs, but the SECURE Act 2.0 eliminated that requirement starting in 2024. Roth balances in workplace plans are now treated the same as Roth IRAs for lifetime RMD purposes. Inherited Roth accounts still carry their own distribution rules, but the person who put the money in never sees the rising percentage.
Blunting the Effect of a Larger Percentage Each Year
Because the withdrawal percentage rises every year, the tax bite tends to grow with it. Several tools can reduce that pressure.
Qualified Charitable Distributions
If you’re 70½ or older, you can direct up to $111,000 per year, the 2026 limit, from a traditional IRA straight to a qualified charity.5Internal Revenue Service. Notice 25-67 – 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, as Adjusted A qualified charitable distribution counts toward your RMD but doesn’t appear in your adjusted gross income. That keeps the money out of your taxable income entirely, which can also help you avoid Medicare premium surcharges and the taxation of Social Security benefits. Each spouse can make their own QCD up to the annual limit.
Qualified Longevity Annuity Contracts
A QLAC lets you move up to $210,000, the 2026 lifetime limit, from your retirement accounts into a deferred annuity that begins paying out at a future age, typically 80 or 85. The amount invested in the QLAC is excluded from your account balance when calculating RMDs, so it directly reduces the annual withdrawal requirement until annuity payments begin.
Roth Conversions Before RMDs Start
Converting traditional IRA or 401(k) money to a Roth account triggers an immediate tax bill, but the converted balance is no longer subject to future RMDs. People in lower-income years between retirement and their required beginning date often benefit the most, because they can fill up lower tax brackets with conversions. There’s no annual limit on Roth conversions, though converting too much in one year can backfire by pushing you into a higher bracket.
What Happens If You Ignore the Climb
If you withdraw less than the required amount in a given year, the IRS imposes an excise tax of 25% on the shortfall.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S.C. 4974 – Excise Tax on Certain Accumulations in Qualified Retirement Plans That penalty was 50% before the SECURE Act 2.0 reduced it. If you catch the mistake and withdraw the missing amount within the correction window, the tax drops to 10%.7eCFR. 26 CFR 54.4974-1 – Excise Tax on Accumulations in Qualified Retirement Plans The correction window runs from the date the penalty applies through the end of the second tax year beginning after the year you missed the RMD, roughly two to three years depending on timing.
The IRS can also waive the excise tax entirely if the shortfall was due to reasonable error and you’ve taken steps to fix it. You request the waiver on Form 5329 by writing “RC” and the shortfall amount on the dotted line next to line 54, then attaching a letter explaining what went wrong.8Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5329 (2025) – Additional Taxes on Qualified Plans (Including IRAs) and Other Tax-Favored Accounts Common reasonable-cause situations include a custodian processing error, a death in the family, or serious illness. Approval rates are generally favorable when the shortfall has already been corrected by the time you file.
Because the required percentage rises every year, the risk of an under-withdrawal grows quietly alongside it. A distribution that was comfortably above the requirement at 73 can fall short by 85 if the account has grown and the divisor has shrunk. Checking the divisor against your December 31 balance each year is the simplest way to keep pace with a formula that’s designed to catch up with you.