US RMD Calculator 2026 — Required Minimum Distribution from IRA & 401(k)

How to Use This RMD Calculator

Running the numbers above takes under two minutes. Here’s the order that gets you an accurate result:

1. Enter each retirement account balance as of December 31, 2025 — the prior-year-end balance the IRS uses for every required minimum distribution calculation. Add your traditional IRA, rollover IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, 401(k), and 403(b) accounts; you can list up to five for a combined result.
2. Select the account type for each entry — IRAs and 401(k)-type plans follow different aggregation rules, so this matters more than it looks.
3. Enter your age as of December 31, 2026. The IRS uses your age at year-end, not your birthdate, to pull the distribution period from the Uniform Lifetime Table.
4. Optional: toggle “still working” if you have an active 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b) with your current employer and own less than 5% of the company — this can delay that specific plan’s RMD.
5. Optional: add your other income and filing status for an estimated federal tax figure on the distribution.
6. Click Calculate My 2026 RMD for your total, a 10-year projection, and a per-account breakdown.

What Is a Required Minimum Distribution?

A required minimum distribution is the amount the IRS forces you to withdraw each year from a tax-deferred retirement account once you hit a certain age. The logic behind it is simple: money went into a traditional IRA or 401(k) pre-tax, so at some point the IRS wants its share — RMDs are how that gets enforced.

They apply to traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and 457(b) government plans. Roth IRAs are the exception — no RMDs during the original owner’s lifetime, which is exactly why so many people run Roth conversion scenarios through our 401(k) Retirement Calculator before they reach RMD age.

The deadline is December 31 each year, with one wrinkle: your very first RMD can be pushed to April 1 of the following year. That grace period sounds generous, but it isn’t free — delay it and you’ll owe two RMDs in that second calendar year, which can land you in a higher bracket than spreading them across two separate tax years would have.

Who Must Take RMDs in 2026? SECURE 2.0 Age Rules

The SECURE 2.0 Act reset the starting age, and which rule applies to you comes down to birth year:

In 2026, anyone born in 1953 turns 73 and owes their first RMD. Anyone born 1952 or earlier is already in the cycle. Born 1954 or later? Nothing due yet — though existing obligations that started before SECURE 2.0 still stand.

The “still working” exception lets an employee who’s still employed, and owns less than 5% of the company, delay RMDs from that current employer’s 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b) — it does not extend to IRAs, or to any plan from a former employer. If you’re timing this against Social Security, our Social Security Benefits Calculator is worth running alongside your RMD numbers.

How Your RMD Is Calculated — The IRS Formula

The math itself is short. It comes straight from IRS Publication 590-B:

The current table dates to a 2022 update that lengthened life-expectancy assumptions, which is why RMDs today are a bit smaller than they were under the old table. At 73, the distribution period is 26.5 years; by 90 it’s dropped to 12.2 — the older you get, the bigger the slice of the account you’re required to pull out.

When the Joint Life Table Applies

There’s one case where you get a longer period, and therefore a smaller RMD: your spouse is the sole beneficiary of the IRA and is more than 10 years younger than you. That opens up the IRS Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy Table instead of the standard one. The calculator flags this automatically when you fill in the spouse fields.

Example RMD Calculation for 2026

A full worked example, using a common retiree profile:

Change the setup slightly: say Margaret has two IRAs instead of one — $400,000 and $120,000. The combined RMD is still $21,138, and she can pull the whole thing from either account, or split it. That flexibility is unique to IRAs; a 401(k) doesn’t allow it, since each plan has to satisfy its own RMD separately.

RMD Calculator Table: Distribution Periods by Age

If you’d rather see the Uniform Lifetime Table directly instead of running the calculator, here’s the distribution period for common RMD ages. This is the exact table the calculator above uses:

Full single-year table available in IRS Publication 590-B, Appendix B, Table III. The calculator above runs the complete table automatically — you don’t need to look up your own age manually.

Inherited IRA RMDs — A Different Set of Rules Entirely

Everything above covers RMDs on your own retirement account. If you inherited an IRA or 401(k) from someone who died in 2020 or later, the rules are genuinely different, and this is where most people get tripped up — the “stretch IRA” strategy that let beneficiaries spread withdrawals over their own lifetime mostly disappeared with the SECURE Act.

The 10-Year Rule

Most non-spouse beneficiaries who inherited an IRA after December 31, 2019 fall under the 10-year rule: the entire account has to be emptied by December 31 of the 10th year following the original owner’s death. Whether you also owe an annual RMD within those 10 years depends on one thing — had the original owner already reached their required beginning date before they died?

• Owner died on or after their required beginning date: the beneficiary owes annual RMDs in years 1–9 (based on the beneficiary’s own life expectancy), then must clear the account entirely by year 10.
• Owner died before their required beginning date: no annual RMDs are required during the 10-year window — the account just needs to be fully distributed by the end of year 10.

This distinction was genuinely unsettled for a few years after the SECURE Act passed, and the IRS issued penalty relief for missed annual RMDs in 2021 through 2024 while it worked through final regulations. Those final regulations are now in effect, so if you’re in the “owner died on/after their required beginning date” category, the annual RMD is a real, current requirement — not an optional extra.

Eligible Designated Beneficiaries — Who Skips the 10-Year Rule

A small group of beneficiaries is exempt from the 10-year rule entirely and can still stretch distributions over their own life expectancy:

• A surviving spouse (who can also choose to treat the IRA as their own)
• A minor child of the original owner — until they reach the age of majority, at which point the 10-year clock starts
• A beneficiary who is disabled or chronically ill, under IRS definitions
• A beneficiary who is not more than 10 years younger than the original owner

Inherited Roth IRAs

The 10-year rule still applies to inherited Roth IRAs held by non-eligible beneficiaries, but with one meaningful difference: since the original Roth owner never had a required beginning date, no annual RMD is owed during the 10-year window — only full distribution by the end of year 10. Because qualified Roth withdrawals are tax-free, this makes an inherited Roth IRA one of the more flexible accounts to manage on this list.

RMDs Across Multiple Retirement Accounts

Aggregation rules differ sharply between IRAs and 401(k)-type plans, and mixing them up is an easy mistake:

IRA Aggregation Rule

Own more than one traditional IRA (including SEP and SIMPLE)? Calculate each one’s RMD separately, but you’re free to take the combined total from any single IRA or split it however you like. That flexibility lets you draw down the account you’d rather reduce first.

401(k) / 403(b) / 457(b) — No Aggregation

Qualified employer plans don’t get that same flexibility. Each 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b) has to satisfy its own RMD from that specific plan — you can’t cover one plan’s requirement by withdrawing more from another, or from an IRA. Two former-employer 401(k)s means two separate withdrawals. The account breakdown table in the calculator above shows exactly which obligations belong to which account.

A lot of retirees simplify this by rolling old 401(k)s into a single IRA, cutting down the number of required withdrawals each year. Talk to a financial advisor before any rollover — it needs to fit your broader tax picture, not just your RMD paperwork. Our W-4 Tax Withholding Calculator can help plan the withholding or estimated payments once you know what’s coming out.

Tax Implications of Your 2026 RMD

RMD withdrawals count as ordinary income the year you take them, taxed at your regular federal marginal rate plus any state income tax — not at the lower long-term capital gains rates.

There’s a knock-on effect worth knowing about: if an RMD pushes your total income past IRS thresholds, up to 85% of your Social Security benefit can become taxable. A large enough RMD can also trigger higher Medicare Part B and D premiums through IRMAA surcharges, calculated on a two-year lookback.

Federal Withholding on RMDs

You can elect federal withholding on an RMD — the default is 10%, but you can set any percentage, or none at all, via IRS Form W-4R. If you expect to owe more, request higher withholding or make quarterly estimated payments instead. Our W-4 Tax Withholding Calculator can help pin down the right number.

Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)

The single most effective way to soften an RMD’s tax bite is the Qualified Charitable Distribution. At age 70½ or older, you can send up to $111,000 directly from your IRA to a qualified charity in 2026 (up from $108,000 in 2025). A QCD counts toward your RMD but never touches your taxable income — unlike a withdrawal followed by a charitable deduction, it lowers AGI directly, which can also soften Medicare IRMAA and Social Security taxation. There’s also a lesser-known one-time option: up to $55,000 of a QCD can fund a charitable remainder trust or gift annuity instead of a direct gift. Pairing QCDs with an HSA vs FSA Calculator 2026 is a combination worth modeling if you’re trying to bring your effective retirement tax rate down further.

Penalty for Missing Your 2026 RMD: 25% Excise Tax

Missing an RMD isn’t cheap. SECURE 2.0 brought the penalty down from 50% to 25% of the shortfall — still steep — and if you correct it within a two-year window, that drops further to 10%.

The IRS can waive the penalty for reasonable error if you take corrective action and attach an explanation to your return. In practice, first-time waivers for people who fix the mistake promptly tend to go smoothly.

Strategies to Minimize Your RMD Tax Impact

A handful of legitimate strategies actually move the needle on RMD tax exposure:

• Roth conversions before age 73: converting traditional IRA funds in lower-income years shrinks your future RMD balance, since Roth IRAs never require lifetime RMDs. Model different conversion scenarios with our 401(k) Retirement Calculator.
• Qualified Charitable Distributions: up to $111,000/year straight from IRA to charity, tax-free, satisfying the RMD with zero AGI impact.
• Federal withholding at the source: letting your custodian withhold means one less set of estimated payments to track, and less risk of an underpayment penalty.
• Drawdown sequencing: in the years before RMDs start, spending taxable brokerage money first (letting tax-deferred accounts keep growing) buys more years for Roth conversions — though it can also mean a larger RMD down the line. Worth modeling with an advisor rather than guessing.
• Consolidating old 401(k)s into one IRA: fewer accounts, fewer separate RMD calculations, often lower custodian fees.
• QLAC: up to the lesser of $200,000 or 25% of an IRA balance can go into a Qualified Longevity Annuity Contract, which is excluded from RMD calculations until payments start (by age 85 at the latest) — a real lever for anyone managing longevity risk.

Frequently Asked Questions — RMD Calculator 2026

Data Sources & Methodology