IRS Actuarial Tables: RMDs, Section 7520, and Inherited Accounts

The IRS actuarial tables are two separate sets of life-expectancy tables that do unrelated jobs: one set tells you how much you must withdraw each year from a retirement account, and the other set puts a present-day dollar value on property interests that depend on how long someone is expected to live. Picking the wrong set, or the wrong table within a set, is how taxpayers end up with a 25% penalty on a missed distribution or a gift tax deficiency on a trust that was valued incorrectly.

The retirement-account tables live in IRS Publication 590-B and turn your age into a divisor. The property-valuation tables live under Section 7520 of the Internal Revenue Code and combine mortality data with a monthly interest rate.¹² Everything below sorts into one bucket or the other.

Which RMD Table You Use

Three tables cover required minimum distributions, and each produces a different divisor at the same age.

Uniform Lifetime Table. The default for almost every account owner. You use it if you’re unmarried, if your spouse is not your sole beneficiary, or if your spouse is your sole beneficiary but is not more than 10 years younger than you.
Joint and Last Survivor Table. Applies only when your sole beneficiary is your spouse and your spouse is more than 10 years younger. The divisors run larger, so the required withdrawal is smaller.
Single Life Expectancy Table. Used mainly by beneficiaries who inherited an account and still qualify for life-expectancy distributions.

Most owners end up on the Uniform Lifetime Table. A common misstep is reaching for the Joint and Last Survivor Table when the age gap doesn’t actually exceed 10 years; an eight-year gap still puts you on the Uniform table.³

How to Calculate Your RMD

Take your account balance on December 31 of the prior year. Divide it by the life-expectancy factor your table assigns to your current age. That quotient is your required withdrawal for the year.⁴

Example: you’re 75, and your IRA held $400,000 on December 31 of last year. The Uniform Lifetime factor at 75 is 24.6. $400,000 ÷ 24.6 is about $16,260. You can always take more. You cannot take less without triggering the penalty. If you own more than one IRA, you figure the RMD for each one separately, but you can satisfy the total out of any combination of them.

When RMDs Start and What Missing One Costs

Under SECURE 2.0, the RMD starting age is 73 for anyone born between 1951 and 1959. It rises to 75 beginning in 2033 for people born in 1960 or later. For 2026, the trigger stays at 73.⁴

Your first RMD is due by April 1 of the year after you turn 73. Every one after that is due by December 31. Deferring that first withdrawal to April means two RMDs land in the same calendar year, which can push your taxable income into a higher bracket.⁵

Fall short of the required amount and the IRS charges a 25% excise tax on the shortfall. The penalty drops to 10% if you fix the shortfall during the correction window, which generally runs through the end of the second taxable year after the year the tax was imposed.⁶ You report it on Form 5329 with your return for the year you missed the distribution.⁴

Inherited Accounts: Single Life Table or the 10-Year Rule

The SECURE Act changed the default for inherited retirement accounts. Most beneficiaries no longer get to stretch distributions over their own life expectancy. If you inherited an IRA or 401(k) and you are not an “eligible designated beneficiary,” you must empty the account within 10 years of the original owner’s death. Annual RMDs calculated on the Single Life Expectancy Table may still be required during those years, but the balance has to reach zero by December 31 of the tenth year.⁷

Five categories of beneficiary can still use life-expectancy distributions:

A surviving spouse, who can also treat the account as their own or roll it into their own IRA.
A minor child of the account owner, until the child reaches the age of majority, at which point the 10-year clock starts.
A disabled individual as defined under Section 72(m)(7).
A chronically ill individual as defined under Section 7702B(c)(2).
Anyone not more than 10 years younger than the deceased owner.

Everyone else — adult children, grandchildren, most trusts, friends who are more than 10 years younger — is on the 10-year rule.⁷

For an eligible designated beneficiary using the Single Life Expectancy Table, the starting factor is set from the beneficiary’s age in the year after the owner’s death. That factor drops by one each following year, so required withdrawals grow slightly over time.³

Section 7520 Tables for Life Estates, Annuities, and Remainders

Section 7520 tables answer a different question: what is a property interest tied to someone’s lifespan worth today? The IRS uses them to value life estates, remainder interests, term-of-years interests, and annuities for gift tax, estate tax, and income tax charitable deductions. The point of a standardized table is consistency: two taxpayers transferring the same type of interest at the same ages and the same rate reach the same number, without arguing over individual health.²

The Monthly 7520 Rate

Section 7520 valuations need a second input beyond age: the 7520 interest rate. That rate equals 120% of the federal midterm rate for the month of the transfer, rounded to the nearest two-tenths of a percent, and the IRS publishes it each month.² For early 2026, it has ranged from 4.6% to 4.8%.⁸

The rate works as a discount rate. A higher 7520 rate shrinks the present value of a future interest, like a remainder, and raises the present value of a current income interest, like an annuity. A lower rate reverses that. Because the number changes every month, the month in which a planned transfer closes can meaningfully change the tax result. For transfers that produce a charitable deduction, the taxpayer may elect the 7520 rate from the month of the transfer or either of the two preceding months.⁹

Where These Tables Show Up: CRTs, CLTs, and QPRTs

Several common planning vehicles split property into a present interest and a future interest, and the Section 7520 tables assign the dollar value to each piece.

A Charitable Remainder Trust pays the donor or another beneficiary an income stream for life or a set term, and the remainder goes to charity. The remainder must be worth at least 10% of the property’s initial value, and the donor’s income tax deduction equals the present value of that remainder, calculated with the 7520 rate and the mortality factors.¹⁰

A Charitable Lead Trust runs the other way. Charity gets the income stream first; the remainder passes to family. The taxable gift is the present value of what the family will eventually receive, and a higher 7520 rate reduces it.²

A Qualified Personal Residence Trust lets a homeowner transfer a house to heirs while keeping the right to live there for a specified number of years. The taxable gift is the remainder value, discounted by the retained term and the 7520 rate. Longer retained terms and higher rates both shrink the gift. Section 2702 adds a strict rule: if the retained interest doesn’t qualify as a “qualified interest,” the IRS values that interest at zero and treats the entire property transfer as a taxable gift.¹¹

The Terminal Illness Exception

The tables assume average health for the person’s age. If the individual whose life measures the interest has at least a 50% probability of dying within one year, the standard Section 7520 mortality factors cannot be used, and a special factor must be computed from the person’s actual projected life expectancy. If the person survives for 18 months or longer after the transfer, they are presumed not to have been terminally ill at the time of the gift, and the IRS can rebut that presumption only with clear and convincing evidence.¹²

This override belongs to Section 7520 only. There is no terminal illness adjustment on the RMD side; the required withdrawal uses the standard factor regardless of the account owner’s health.

Reporting Transfers That Use the Tables

Creating a split-interest trust or making any gift that requires an actuarial valuation is reported on Form 709, the United States Gift (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return. A certified copy of the trust instrument has to accompany the return for the first transfer to the trust, and any claimed valuation discount needs a written explanation showing how it was calculated.¹³ Keep the inputs you used — the 7520 rate for the chosen month, the specific mortality table, the measuring life’s age — in your supporting workpapers. If the wrong rate or the wrong table shows up on audit, the valuation and the deduction built on it both come apart.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions From Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 7520 – Valuation Tables
3
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
4
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
5
Internal Revenue Service. April 1 Final Day to Begin Required Withdrawals From IRAs and 401(k)s
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4974 – Excise Tax on Certain Accumulations in Qualified Retirement Plans
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 401 – Qualified Pension, Profit-Sharing, and Stock Bonus Plans
8
Internal Revenue Service. Section 7520 Interest Rates
9
eCFR. 26 CFR 20.7520-2 – Valuation of Charitable Interests
10
Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Remainder Trusts
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 2702 – Special Valuation Rules in Case of Transfers of Interests in Trusts
12
eCFR. General Actuarial Valuations
13
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 709 (2025)