The IRS Uniform Lifetime Table is the RMD tax table most retirement account owners use to calculate their required minimum distribution. You find your age as of December 31 of the current year, read across for the divisor, and divide your prior year-end account balance by that number. The result is the minimum you must withdraw from your Traditional IRA or 401(k) that year.
The Uniform Lifetime Table
These divisors come from Table III in IRS Publication 590-B and the regulatory tables at 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-9.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B – Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)2eCFR. 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-9 – Life Expectancy and Uniform Lifetime Tables The factors were updated in January 2022 to reflect longer life expectancies, which slightly reduced the required withdrawal compared to the earlier version.
| Age | Divisor | Age | Divisor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 72 | 27.4 | 87 | 14.4 |
| 73 | 26.5 | 88 | 13.7 |
| 74 | 25.5 | 89 | 12.9 |
| 75 | 24.6 | 90 | 12.2 |
| 76 | 23.7 | 91 | 11.5 |
| 77 | 22.9 | 92 | 10.8 |
| 78 | 22.0 | 93 | 10.1 |
| 79 | 21.1 | 94 | 9.5 |
| 80 | 20.2 | 95 | 8.9 |
| 81 | 19.4 | 96 | 8.4 |
| 82 | 18.5 | 97 | 7.8 |
| 83 | 17.7 | 98 | 7.3 |
| 84 | 16.8 | 99 | 6.8 |
| 85 | 16.0 | 100 | 6.4 |
| 86 | 15.2 | 101+ | 6.0 and below |
The table continues past age 100, with the divisor dropping to 2.0 at age 120.
Making Sure This Is the Right Table for You
The IRS keeps three separate life expectancy tables, and using the wrong one produces the wrong number. The Uniform Lifetime Table is the default. It applies if you are unmarried, if you are married and your spouse is not more than 10 years younger, or if your spouse is not the sole beneficiary of the account.
Two exceptions:
- If your spouse is both the sole beneficiary of the account and more than 10 years younger than you, you use the Joint and Last Survivor Table instead. It factors in two longer lifespans, producing a larger divisor and therefore a smaller required withdrawal. You will need your spouse’s age as of December 31 of the current year to look up the combined factor.
- If you inherited the account from someone other than a spouse, neither table above applies. Beneficiaries use the Single Life Expectancy Table, which follows a different set of rules covered separately by the IRS.
How to Run the Calculation
Take your total account balance as of December 31 of the prior year. Divide it by the divisor for your age on December 31 of the current year.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B – Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) The result is your RMD for the year.
Example: you turn 75 in 2026, and your Traditional IRA balance was $500,000 on December 31, 2025. The divisor for age 75 is 24.6. Dividing $500,000 by 24.6 gives an RMD of $20,325 for 2026. You can withdraw more than that, but not less without triggering a penalty.
When You First Enter the Table
The age at which you begin depends on when you were born. Congress has raised the starting age twice through the SECURE Act and SECURE 2.0:
- Born before July 1, 1949: RMDs started at age 70½.
- Born July 1, 1949 through December 31, 1950: RMDs start at age 72.
- Born January 1, 1951 through December 31, 1959: RMDs start at age 73.
- Born on or after January 1, 1960: RMDs start at age 75.
The 1959 birth year initially caused confusion because of a drafting error in SECURE 2.0. The IRS has clarified through proposed regulations that people born in 1959 begin at age 73.3Congressional Research Service. Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Rules for Original Owners of Retirement Accounts
One exception can push your starting date later. If you are still employed past your RMD age, own 5% or less of the business, and have an account with that employer’s plan, you can delay RMDs from that specific plan until April 1 of the year after you retire. This does not apply to IRAs or to accounts left behind at former employers; those follow the normal schedule.4Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
Deadlines and the First-Year Trap
Your first RMD is due by April 1 of the year after you reach the starting age. Every RMD after that is due by December 31 of each calendar year.5Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
That April 1 grace period looks generous, and it creates a trap. If you push your first RMD to April 1, a second RMD is still due by December 31 of that same year. Two taxable distributions land in one calendar year. That can move you into a higher bracket, increase the taxable share of your Social Security benefits, and lift your Medicare premiums two years down the line. For most people, taking the first RMD by December 31 of the year you reach the starting age avoids the pile-up.4Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
What Happens if You Take Too Little
Withdraw less than the required amount and the IRS imposes a 25% excise tax on the shortfall. If your RMD was $20,000 and you pulled $12,000, you owe 25% of the $8,000 gap. That is a $2,000 penalty on top of the income tax on the distribution itself.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4974 – Excise Tax on Certain Accumulations in Qualified Retirement Plans
SECURE 2.0 added a correction window. If you take the missed distribution and file Form 5329 reflecting the corrected amount by the end of the second taxable year after the year the penalty applies, the excise tax drops from 25% to 10%.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4974 – Excise Tax on Certain Accumulations in Qualified Retirement Plans
The IRS can waive the penalty entirely if you can show the shortfall came from a reasonable error and you have since taken the distribution. Serious illness, cognitive decline, and custodian errors are the kinds of situations that qualify. You request the waiver by filing Form 5329 with a letter explaining what happened.
Accounts That Don’t Use This Table at All
Not every retirement account produces an RMD during the owner’s lifetime. Roth IRAs have never required distributions from the original owner. Starting in 2024, designated Roth accounts inside employer plans, including Roth 401(k)s and Roth 403(b)s, are also exempt from lifetime RMDs under SECURE 2.0.5Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) Beneficiaries who inherit any Roth account still face distribution requirements, even though the original owner did not.
If You Have More Than One Account
The aggregation rules decide whether you can combine RMDs across accounts or must take each one separately.
For IRAs, you calculate the RMD for each account, but you may add the amounts together and take the full total from a single IRA if that is easier. The same rule applies across 403(b) accounts.4Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
Employer-sponsored plans work differently. Each 401(k) or 457(b) RMD must be calculated and withdrawn from that specific plan. You cannot satisfy a 401(k) RMD by pulling from an IRA, and you cannot combine two 401(k)s from different employers. This catches people with old accounts scattered across former jobs.7Internal Revenue Service. RMD Comparison Chart (IRAs vs. Defined Contribution Plans)