What Is a Required Minimum Distribution? Rules, Deadlines, and Penalties

A required minimum distribution is the smallest amount you must withdraw each year from most tax-deferred retirement accounts once you reach a specific age. Your contributions and their growth escaped tax on the way in, and the required minimum distribution rules are how the IRS finally collects. The starting age, the calculation, and which accounts count all depend on rules Congress has revised more than once in recent years.

Which Accounts Are Affected

The rules cover retirement accounts funded with pre-tax dollars: Traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, and governmental 457(b) plans.¹ You must begin taking money out by a set age whether you need the income or not.²

Roth IRAs have no lifetime distribution requirement because contributions were already taxed. Roth accounts inside employer plans used to require distributions, but the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 eliminated that requirement for tax years beginning after December 31, 2023.³ A Roth 401(k) or Roth 403(b) is now treated like a Roth IRA for this purpose.

When You Have to Start

Your starting age depends on the year you were born:

Born before July 1, 1949: distributions started at age 70½.
Born July 1, 1949 through December 31, 1950: age 72.
Born January 1, 1951 through December 31, 1959: age 73.
Born January 1, 1960 or later: age 75, beginning in 2033.

The IRS calls this your “applicable age,” and the birth-year cutoffs above are the ones it uses.⁴

The Still-Working Exception

If you keep working past your applicable age, you can delay distributions from your current employer’s plan until the year you actually retire, provided you don’t own 5% or more of the business sponsoring the plan.⁵ Five percent owners must start on the normal schedule regardless.⁶

The exception only covers the plan at your current job. Traditional IRAs and old 401(k)s from previous employers still require distributions on the normal schedule. It’s easy to overlook the IRA sitting in the background.

How the Amount Is Calculated

Take the account’s balance on December 31 of the prior year and divide it by a life expectancy factor from an IRS table. Most people use the Uniform Lifetime Table, which assumes a beneficiary about ten years younger than the account owner.⁷

An example makes it concrete. You turn 73 in 2026 and your Traditional IRA balance was $500,000 on December 31, 2025. The Uniform Lifetime Table gives age 73 a distribution period of 26.5. Divide $500,000 by 26.5 and your distribution for 2026 is about $18,868. At age 75, the factor drops to 24.6, producing a larger required withdrawal on the same balance. The percentage you must withdraw climbs each year.

One alternative table exists. If your spouse is the sole beneficiary and is more than ten years younger than you, you can use the Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy Table, which produces a smaller annual withdrawal.⁷

Rules for Multiple Accounts

If you own several retirement accounts, calculate the required amount separately for each one, but the aggregation rules differ by account type. IRAs can be combined: figure each IRA’s amount, add them up, and pull the total from any one IRA. The same is true for 403(b) accounts. Distributions from 401(k) and 457(b) plans, on the other hand, must come from each plan individually.⁸

Someone with three IRAs and an old 401(k) can aggregate the IRAs, but forgetting the 401(k) triggers a separate penalty on that account’s shortfall. Keep a checklist of every account and which ones let you combine.

Deadlines and the Double-Distribution Trap

Your first distribution gets a grace period: you have until April 1 of the year after you reach your applicable age. Every distribution after that is due by December 31 of the year it applies to.⁴ The April 1 extension sounds generous, but it creates a problem. If you delay the first year’s amount into the following calendar year, you’ll owe two distributions in that same calendar year: the delayed first-year amount plus the regular second-year amount.⁵

Two distributions stacked in one year means two chunks of taxable income, which can push you into a higher federal tax bracket. For most people, taking the first distribution in the year you actually reach the applicable age avoids the problem. The deferral only makes sense if you have a specific reason to keep income low that first year.

What Happens If You Miss One

Withdraw less than the required amount by the deadline and the IRS imposes an excise tax of 25% on the shortfall.⁹ If your required amount was $20,000 and you took $12,000, the penalty is 25% of the $8,000 gap, or $2,000. SECURE 2.0 cut the old rate in half from 50%.

The penalty drops to 10% if you correct the mistake within a defined correction window. That window runs from the date the tax is imposed until the earliest of three events: the IRS mails a notice of deficiency, the IRS assesses the tax, or the last day of the second tax year after the year the penalty applies.⁹ To get the reduced rate, take the missed distribution and file a return reflecting the corrected tax during that window.

Asking the IRS to Waive the Penalty

If the shortfall was due to a reasonable error and you’re fixing it, the IRS can waive the penalty entirely. File Form 5329 with a written explanation. On the form, write “RC” and the shortfall amount you want waived on the dotted line next to the relevant line, then subtract that amount before calculating tax due.¹⁰ Common reasonable-cause scenarios include a custodian processing error, serious illness, or bad institutional advice. A vague “I forgot” tends not to succeed, but the IRS grants these waivers more often than people expect when the explanation is genuine and the missed distribution has already been taken.

Qualified Charitable Distributions

A qualified charitable distribution (QCD) lets you send money straight from your IRA to a qualifying charity and exclude the transfer from your taxable income. You must be at least 70½, so QCDs are available before distributions become mandatory at 73.⁷ For 2026, the maximum annual exclusion is $111,000.¹¹

A QCD that equals your required amount satisfies the year’s requirement without adding to your adjusted gross income. That beats taking the distribution and donating separately, especially if you claim the standard deduction and would get no write-off. The transfer must go directly from the IRA custodian to the charity; if the check passes through your hands, the IRS treats it as a regular taxable distribution. QCDs only work from Traditional and Rollover IRAs, not from employer plans or ongoing SEP and SIMPLE IRAs.

Inherited Accounts Follow Different Rules

If you inherited a retirement account, your rules depend on your relationship to the original owner and when that person died. The SECURE Act reshaped this area in 2020.

A narrow group called eligible designated beneficiaries can still stretch distributions over their own life expectancy: a surviving spouse, a minor child of the account owner, someone disabled or chronically ill, and anyone not more than ten years younger than the deceased owner.¹² These beneficiaries use the Single Life Expectancy Table.¹³

Most other non-spouse beneficiaries who inherited from someone who died in 2020 or later must empty the account by the end of the 10th year following the owner’s death.¹² The IRS clarified in 2024 that if the original owner died on or after their required beginning date, annual distributions are required in years one through nine with a full payout by the end of year ten. If the owner died before that date, no annual minimums apply during those ten years. The rules take effect for calendar years starting January 1, 2025.¹⁴

The Medicare Premium Ripple Effect

Distribution income counts toward your modified adjusted gross income, and Medicare uses that figure from two years earlier to set your premiums. Cross certain income thresholds and you pay an Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) on top of your standard Part B and Part D premiums.

For 2026, the first IRMAA surcharge kicks in at $109,000 for single filers and $218,000 for joint filers, adding $81.20 per month for Part B and $14.50 per month for Part D. The tiers climb from there.¹⁵ Two distributions stacked in the same year can lift income across a threshold and cost you thousands in extra premiums two years later. QCDs and careful timing can keep your income below the nearest tier.

1
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-1 – Minimum Distribution Requirement in General
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 401 – Qualified Pension, Profit-Sharing, and Stock Bonus Plans
3
Senate Finance Committee. SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 Section-by-Section Summary
4
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
5
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 401 – Qualified Pension, Profit-Sharing, and Stock Bonus Plans
7
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B – Distributions From Individual Retirement Arrangements
8
Internal Revenue Service. RMD Comparison Chart (IRAs vs. Defined Contribution Plans)
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4974 – Excise Tax on Certain Accumulations in Qualified Retirement Plans
10
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5329 (2025)
11
Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, as Adjusted for Changes in Cost-of-Living
12
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Beneficiary
13
Internal Revenue Service. Required Minimum Distributions for IRA Beneficiaries
14
Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2024-35 – Certain Required Minimum Distributions
15
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 2026 Medicare Parts A and B Premiums and Deductibles