If you own a traditional IRA, SEP IRA, or SIMPLE IRA, distributions must begin at age 73 if you were born between 1951 and 1959, and at age 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. Your very first withdrawal can wait until April 1 of the year after you hit that age. Every withdrawal after that is due by December 31. Miss a deadline and the IRS charges a 25% excise tax on whatever you should have taken out.
The Two Age Brackets
Congress reset the starting age twice in recent years, first through the SECURE Act of 2019 and then SECURE 2.0 in 2022. The current rules split savers into two groups based on birth year.
- Born 1951 through 1959: required minimum distributions begin at age 73. Someone born in 1951 had a first RMD year of 2024; someone born in 1959 will have a first RMD year of 2032.
- Born 1960 or later: RMDs begin at age 75, with the earliest first-year RMDs landing in 2035.
The statute actually anchors the brackets to age rather than birth year. You fall into the age-73 group if you turned 72 after December 31, 2022, and will turn 73 before January 1, 2033. You fall into the age-75 group if you turn 74 after December 31, 2032.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 401 – Qualified Pension, Profit-Sharing, and Stock Bonus Plans – Section: Required Distributions
If you were born before 1951, your RMDs already began under the older age-72 or age-70½ rules, and the newer thresholds do not roll back what has started.
Your First RMD Deadline vs. Every Year After
The first RMD gets a longer runway than any that follow. You can take it any time during the year you reach the applicable age, or you can push it into the next year as long as you withdraw it by April 1. The IRS calls that April 1 date your required beginning date.2Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
Every RMD after the first one has a firm December 31 deadline. No grace period, no rolling window.3Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
Why Delaying the First One Can Backfire
Waiting until April 1 sounds like a free tax deferral, but it isn’t. Push the first RMD into the next calendar year and you still owe the second one by December 31 of that same year. Two distributions then hit a single tax return, which can lift you into a higher bracket, increase the taxable share of your Social Security benefits, and raise the Medicare premiums you’ll pay two years later.3Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
Say you turn 73 in 2026. Your first RMD can be taken any time before April 1, 2027, and your second is due by December 31, 2027. If you wait until March 2027 for the first one, both fall on your 2027 return. Taking the first by December 31, 2026, spreads the income across two tax years.
Which Accounts These Deadlines Apply To
Traditional IRAs are the most common account subject to RMDs, but the same age-based schedule reaches SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, 457(b) government plans, and profit-sharing plans.2Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) What ties them together is untaxed money, either at contribution or in growth, that the government now wants to tax.
Roth IRAs are the exception. You never have to take RMDs from a Roth IRA during your lifetime, because the account was funded with money that was already taxed. Under SECURE 2.0, designated Roth accounts inside 401(k) and 403(b) plans now follow the same rule, so no RMDs are required from those during the original owner’s lifetime either.3Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
Still Working Past 73? The Exception That Doesn’t Cover IRAs
If you’re employed past your RMD age and you participate in your current employer’s 401(k), 403(b), or similar plan, that plan can usually let you delay RMDs until the year you actually retire. The plan document itself has to allow the delay, and not all do, so check with the plan administrator.3Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
Two limits are worth knowing. The exception only covers your current employer’s plan, so an old 401(k) sitting with a former employer still requires RMDs on the standard schedule. And if you own more than 5% of the business sponsoring the plan, you cannot use the exception at all.
The still-working exception does not extend to IRAs. Traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRA owners must begin distributions at 73 or 75 regardless of employment status.2Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
Figuring the Amount
The calculation itself is simple. Take your account balance on December 31 of the prior year and divide it by a life expectancy factor from an IRS table.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B – Distributions From Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) Most people use Table III, the Uniform Lifetime Table. Look up your age as of your birthday in the distribution year, find the corresponding factor, divide.
A worked example: you turn 75 in 2026 with a $500,000 IRA balance on December 31, 2025. The Uniform Lifetime Table factor for age 75 is 24.6, so your RMD is $500,000 ÷ 24.6, or $20,325. At age 80 the factor falls to 20.2, so the required percentage grows as you get older.
One alternate table applies if your spouse is the sole beneficiary of your IRA and is more than 10 years younger than you. In that case you can use Table II, the Joint and Last Survivor Table, which gives a larger divisor and a smaller required withdrawal.5Internal Revenue Service. IRA Required Minimum Distribution Worksheet – Spouse 10 Years Younger
If you own several traditional IRAs, calculate the RMD for each account separately, then add them together and withdraw the total from whichever IRA you prefer. An IRA withdrawal cannot cover a 401(k) RMD, and 401(k)s cannot be aggregated with each other the way IRAs can.6Internal Revenue Service. RMD Comparison Chart (IRAs vs. Defined Contribution Plans)
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline
The excise tax for falling short on an RMD is 25% of the amount you were supposed to withdraw and didn’t. A $20,000 shortfall runs $5,000 in penalties, and you still owe ordinary income tax on the distribution when you eventually take it.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4974 – Excise Tax on Certain Accumulations in Qualified Retirement Plans
Fix the mistake quickly and the penalty drops to 10%. The IRS provides a correction window that generally runs through the end of the second tax year after the year the penalty was imposed. To get the reduced rate you have to withdraw the missed amount and file a return reflecting the corrected tax within that window.
The penalty can also be waived entirely in some cases. File Form 5329 with an attached letter explaining that the shortfall was due to reasonable error and describing what you’ve done to correct it.8Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5329 A custodian’s processing failure or an incorrect balance report are common examples of reasonable error. You still have to take the missed distribution before requesting the waiver, and the IRS grants many of these requests but does not guarantee them.