RMD Calculator
↻ Updated 2026Find your Required Minimum Distribution — the amount you must withdraw from a traditional IRA once you turn 73 — using the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table and your prior year-end balance.
Educational calculators — always consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.
Born 1953 — SECURE 2.0 sets your required beginning age at 73.
Because 2026 is your first RMD year, you may defer this distribution to 1 April 2027. Doing so does not cancel the 2027 distribution — both land in the same tax year, so you would take roughly $37,736 of taxable income at once, and quite possibly a higher bracket with it. Deferring is occasionally right; it is rarely accidental.
Runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is sent to us.How this works
How to read your RMD result
The distribution factor is the number doing the work, and it's not a life expectancy — it's a divisor the IRS assigns to your age. At 73 it's 26.5, which forces out 3.77% of the balance. Every year the factor shrinks, so the required percentage climbs whether or not your account does.
How your Required Minimum Distribution is calculated
One division. Take the balance your traditional IRA held on 31 December last year, look up the distribution period for the age you reach this year, and divide.
There's no return assumption, no projection and nothing to forecast — which makes this the most exact calculator on the site. Both inputs are facts by the time you need the answer.
RMD = prior year-end balance ÷ distribution factor age 73 → 26.5 age 80 → 20.2 age 90 → 12.2 age 75 → 24.6 age 85 → 16.0 age 95 → 8.9 monthly equivalent = RMD ÷ 12 share of balance = 1 ÷ distribution factor
- prior year-end balance
- What the account held on 31 December of last year — a fixed historical number — not today's balance, not an average
- distribution factor
- The distribution period for your age, from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table — Publication 590-B, Table III — falls every year, from 26.5 at 73 to 2.0 at 120
- RMD
- The minimum you must withdraw for the year — taxed as ordinary income; a floor, not a target
- share of balance
- The RMD as a percentage of the account — the reciprocal of the factor — 1 ÷ 26.5 = 3.77% at age 73
The Uniform Lifetime Table applies to most account owners, and the factors on it are longer than a single life expectancy on purpose: they're built on a joint calculation with a hypothetical beneficiary ten years younger, which spreads distributions over more years than your own life expectancy alone would. Two situations use a different table entirely. If your sole beneficiary is a spouse more than ten years younger than you, the Joint and Last Survivor Table gives a larger factor and a smaller RMD. Inherited accounts follow the Single Life Table and the SECURE Act's beneficiary rules. This calculator implements only the Uniform Lifetime Table.
Worked examples
Example: age 73 with $500,000 in a traditional IRA
The calculator's defaults — your first RMD year, with $500,000 in the account on 31 December last year.
| Prior year-end balancethe 31 December figure, fixed | $500,000 |
| Uniform Lifetime factor (73)IRS Pub 590-B, Table III | 26.5 |
| RMD$500,000 ÷ 26.5 | $18,868 |
| Share of balance1 ÷ 26.5 | 3.77% |
| Monthly equivalentif you spread it evenly | $1,572 |
| Excise tax if you skip it25% of the shortfall — $1,887 if corrected in time | $4,717 |
$18,868, all of it ordinary income. Note that 3.77% is below the 4% the withdrawal-rate rules of thumb suggest — at 73, RMDs are not yet forcing you to drain the account faster than a standard retirement plan would anyway. That changes.
Example: the same $500,000 balance at age 85
Hold the balance at $500,000 and move the age slider to 85. In reality the balance would have moved too — but isolating the factor is the point, because the factor is the part the IRS controls.
| Uniform Lifetime factor (85)down from 26.5 at 73 | 16.0 |
| RMD$500,000 ÷ 16.0 | $31,250 |
| Share of balance1 ÷ 16.0 | 6.25% |
| Monthly equivalentup $1,032 from age 73 | $2,604 |
| vs the age-73 RMD+66%, from the same balance | +$12,382 |
The same account is forced to distribute 66% more at 85 than at 73. By 95 the factor is 8.9 and the required share is 11.24% — nearly three times the age-73 rate. RMDs start gently and accelerate, which is why the tax problem they create tends to arrive later than people plan for.
Frequently asked questions
What age do RMDs start now?
73, for anyone born between 1951 and 1959. SECURE 2.0 moved the age from 72 to 73 in 2023, and it moves again to 75 for those born in 1960 or later. This calculator applies age 73 and does not implement the age-75 cohort — if you were born in 1960 or after, your first RMD year is later than the tool assumes.
The first year has a quirk worth knowing: you may defer that first distribution to 1 April of the following year. Doing so stacks two RMDs into one tax year, since the second is still due by that 31 December. Every subsequent year's deadline is 31 December (IRS Publication 590-B).
What is the penalty for not taking an RMD?
A 25% excise tax on whatever you failed to withdraw — reduced to 10% if you correct the shortfall within the two-year window the IRS defines. SECURE 2.0 cut it from the old 50%, which was among the harshest penalties in the tax code.
On the default $18,868 RMD, skipping it entirely costs $4,717, or $1,887 if promptly corrected — and you still owe income tax on the distribution once you take it. The penalty can be waived where the shortfall was due to reasonable error and you're taking reasonable steps to fix it; that request goes on Form 5329 with a letter of explanation.
Do Roth IRAs have required minimum distributions?
Not during the original owner's lifetime — that's one of the Roth's structural advantages, and it's why Roth balances can compound untouched for as long as you live. Beneficiaries who inherit a Roth IRA do face distribution requirements under the SECURE Act rules. Roth 401(k)s were subject to RMDs until SECURE 2.0 removed them from 2024. See the Roth IRA calculator for what that uninterrupted compounding is worth.
This is the quiet argument for converting before 73 rather than after. Every dollar moved to a Roth is a dollar permanently outside the Uniform Lifetime Table — and a conversion can't be used to satisfy an RMD, so once you're in RMD years, the distribution must come out first.
Can I reinvest my RMD?
Yes — into a taxable brokerage account, immediately, with no waiting period. What you can't do is roll it back into an IRA or any other retirement account: an RMD is not eligible for rollover, and the requirement is that the money leaves the tax-deferred wrapper, not that you spend it.
One exception is worth naming. If you have earned income that year you can make a regular IRA contribution, subject to the usual limits — but that's a separate transaction that happens to be funded by the same dollars, not a rollover. Some owners over 70½ instead direct distributions to charity as a Qualified Charitable Distribution, which can satisfy the RMD without the income appearing on the return at all.
Where this RMD calculator stops
The division is exact. What surrounds it is where the complexity lives, and this tool implements the common case only.
- The age-75 cohort — Age 73 is hardcoded. Under SECURE 2.0 the starting age becomes 75 for anyone born in 1960 or later, so for those savers the calculator flags an RMD roughly two years before one is actually due.
- Only the Uniform Lifetime Table — If your sole beneficiary is a spouse more than ten years younger, the Joint and Last Survivor Table applies and your factor is larger — meaning this tool overstates your RMD. Inherited IRAs use the Single Life Table and different rules entirely.
- One account at a time — The calculator takes a single balance. RMDs are computed per account, but IRA totals may be aggregated and taken from any one of them, while 401(k)s generally must each distribute their own. Enter one balance and you get that account's requirement, not your total.
- No tax calculation — The result is a gross distribution. It's taxed as ordinary income on top of your other income, can affect how much of your Social Security is taxable, and feeds the MAGI that sets Medicare IRMAA surcharges two years later.
- This year only — One year, one balance, one factor. It doesn't project forward, so it won't show you the shape of the problem — that the required percentage rises every year for the rest of your life, from 3.77% at 73 to 11.24% at 95.
- ·IRS Publication 590-B — Uniform Lifetime Table (Table III) — Distribution periods used for RMDs
Rates, brackets and limits here are checked against primary sources. If a number still looks off, email support@realmoneyiq.com and we'll review and fix it.
RealMoneyIQ provides free educational calculators, not financial, tax, investment or legal advice. Results are estimates based on the assumptions you enter and publicly published rates; your actual outcome will differ. Always confirm decisions with a licensed professional who knows your full situation.