How to Fill Out and Submit the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Form

To fill out and submit a Required Minimum Distribution form, calculate the amount the IRS requires you to withdraw this year, complete your custodian’s distribution request form with your account number, the dollar amount, a payment method, and a federal tax withholding election, then send it back through the custodian’s online portal, secure upload, or mail well before the December 31 deadline. There is no single IRS-issued RMD form. Each brokerage, bank, or plan administrator uses its own version, but they all collect the same information.

What to Have Ready Before You Start

Three numbers do most of the work: your account balance as of December 31 of the previous year, your age this year, and the divisor from the correct IRS life expectancy table. Divide the balance by the divisor and you have your RMD.¹

Most people use the Uniform Lifetime Table (Table III in IRS Publication 590-B). The exception is account owners whose sole beneficiary is a spouse more than ten years younger, who use the Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy Table (Table II) and get a larger divisor.² A quick example: a $100,000 balance at age 73 uses a divisor of 26.5, producing an RMD of $3,773.58.

Know the deadline before you sit down with the form. Your first RMD is due by April 1 of the year after you turn 73; every RMD after that is due by December 31.¹ Pushing the first RMD into the next calendar year means two RMDs in that year and both taxed as income. Taking the first one by December 31 of the year you turn 73 avoids the double hit.

If you own several IRAs, calculate each account’s RMD separately, but you can withdraw the combined total from a single IRA. Employer plans like 401(k)s do not aggregate — each plan satisfies its own RMD.³

Where to Find the Form

Contact your custodian or sign into their website. Large brokerages put the distribution request form inside a secure online portal, sometimes as a guided workflow rather than a downloadable PDF. Smaller institutions may email or mail one. If you hold retirement money at more than one firm, you will fill out a separate form at each one — the IRS does not issue a universal RMD form.

What the Form Asks For

Every custodian’s version collects the same core information. Have the following ready:

Personal information: full legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, and current contact details.
Account number for the specific IRA or plan the withdrawal comes from. If you hold multiple accounts at the same custodian, confirm you selected the right one.
Distribution amount. Enter the dollar figure you calculated. The RMD is a floor, not a ceiling — you can always take more.
Payment frequency: a one-time lump sum, monthly, quarterly, or another schedule. Many custodians let you set up automatic annual RMDs so you don’t refile every year.
Delivery method: ACH to a linked bank account, a mailed check, or a wire transfer (typically $25 to $50).

Tax Withholding Election

IRA RMDs are treated as nonperiodic payments for withholding. The default federal rate is 10%, and you can choose anything from 0% to 100% by completing IRS Form W-4R, which your custodian will bundle with the distribution paperwork or fold into the online workflow.⁴ If you skip the W-4R, 10% comes out automatically. Consider whether that covers your actual liability. Someone in the 22% or 24% bracket who accepts the default will owe the rest at filing time. State withholding is a separate line or a separate state form depending on the custodian and your state.

Signature and Medallion Requirements

For routine distributions to the address or bank account already on file, your signature or electronic authorization is enough. Some situations trigger a Medallion Signature Guarantee, a stamp from a bank officer or brokerage firm member. Plan on one if the distribution exceeds $100,000 by check, if you are sending funds to an address or bank account not already on file, or if someone is signing on behalf of the account owner.⁵ A notary stamp is not a substitute.

How to Submit It

Most custodians accept the completed form through the online portal, by uploading a signed copy, or by secure fax. Certified mail to the processing center works but takes longer. Processing typically runs three to five business days once the custodian has a complete, properly signed form. If anything is missing, they will contact you, which is why last-week-of-December submissions are risky. Most advisors suggest submitting by mid-November at the latest so review, corrections, and the actual transfer all finish before the deadline.

Funds arrive by the method you chose. ACH deposits usually land within one to two business days, checks come by mail, and wires hit the same day. Your custodian will send a confirmation statement showing the amount distributed and taxes withheld. Keep it with your tax records.

After the Distribution

By January 31 of the following year, the custodian must send you Form 1099-R, which reports the total distribution and federal tax withheld.⁶ The distribution appears as ordinary income on your return. There is no special capital gains rate for RMDs.⁷

Two Alternatives That Change What You Put on the Form

You can satisfy your RMD without a cash withdrawal to yourself. Both options change how you code the distribution request, so decide before filling out the form.

A Qualified Charitable Distribution sends up to $111,000 in 2026 directly from your IRA to a qualifying 501(c)(3), and the amount counts toward your RMD without showing up in your taxable income.⁸ You must be at least 70½. The money has to go straight from custodian to charity — if it lands in your bank account first, it does not qualify. Tell your custodian to code the distribution as a QCD and confirm the charity’s tax status.

An in-kind distribution transfers shares of stock, mutual funds, or other holdings from your IRA into a taxable brokerage account instead of selling them. The value on the transfer date counts toward your RMD and is taxed as ordinary income at that value, and that same value becomes your new cost basis.⁹ If share prices drop between initiation and settlement, the transferred value could fall short of your RMD, so build in a buffer or be prepared to withdraw cash for the difference.

If You Miss the Deadline

Missing an RMD, or taking less than required, triggers a 25% excise tax on the shortfall. That drops to 10% if you correct the mistake within the correction window, which runs through the end of the second tax year after the year you missed the RMD. Correction means withdrawing the shortfall and filing a return that reflects the tax.¹⁰

If the miss was a genuine error, you can request a full waiver. File IRS Form 5329, complete lines 52 through 55, and enter “RC” with the shortfall amount on the dotted line next to line 54. Attach a written explanation of why you missed the distribution and what you did to fix it.¹¹ Withdraw the missed amount immediately. The IRS is far more receptive to waiver requests when the money is already out of the account. Form 5329 is filed with your annual tax return for the year the RMD was due, whether or not you are requesting a waiver.

One boundary worth naming before you file anything: Roth IRAs require no distributions during the account owner’s lifetime, and designated Roth 401(k) and Roth 403(b) accounts are also exempt from RMDs while you are alive.¹ If your only retirement money sits in Roth accounts, there is no form to fill out.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
2
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B – Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
3
Internal Revenue Service. RMD Comparison Chart (IRAs vs. Defined Contribution Plans)
4
Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Form W-4R
5
First Eagle Investments. IRA Distribution Form
6
Internal Revenue Service. General Instructions for Certain Information Returns (2025)
7
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-R, Distributions From Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, etc.
8
Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, as Adjusted
9
Charles Schwab. Taking In-Kind Distributions from Your IRA
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4974 – Excise Tax on Certain Accumulations in Qualified Retirement Plans
11
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5329 (2025)