Required Minimum Distribution (RMD)

How Your Required Minimum Distribution Is Calculated

Your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) is the smallest amount the IRS requires you to withdraw each year from a tax-deferred retirement account once you reach the required age. Enter your age and your account balance as of December 31 of the prior year, and this calculator finds the required amount.

Accounts like Traditional IRAs and 401(k)s let contributions grow tax-deferred for decades, but that deferral isn’t indefinite — the IRS eventually requires withdrawals so it can collect tax on the money. The required amount is deliberately tied to your remaining life expectancy: younger retirees withdraw a smaller fraction of their balance each year, while the required fraction grows as you get older.

Key Factors to Consider

• An RMD is taxable income in the year it’s withdrawn, added to your other ordinary income — it can push you into a higher tax bracket or affect other income-tested thresholds, like Medicare premium surcharges (IRMAA) or how much of your Social Security benefit is taxable.
• Your very first RMD has a special delayed deadline that comes with a real tradeoff. You can wait until April 1 of the year after you reach the required age to take your first RMD, but doing so means taking two RMDs in that same calendar year — the delayed one plus the current year’s — which can push you into a higher tax bracket for that year than spreading them across two years would have.
• Multiple IRAs can be aggregated for RMD purposes; multiple 401(k)s generally cannot. If you own several Traditional IRAs, you calculate each one’s RMD separately but can withdraw the combined total from any one or a mix of them. Multiple 401(k) plans, by contrast, generally each require their own RMD to be withdrawn from that specific account — check your plan’s own rules rather than assuming IRA aggregation rules apply.

Useful to Know

A Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) can satisfy an RMD without it counting as taxable income. For eligible IRA owners, donating some or all of an RMD directly to a qualified charity through a QCD counts toward the RMD requirement while being excluded from taxable income — a real, IRS-recognized strategy worth knowing about if charitable giving is already part of your plans, since it’s meaningfully different from withdrawing the RMD normally and donating the after-tax proceeds separately.

The Formula

$$\text{RMD} = \frac{\vA{\text{Account balance (Dec 31 of prior year)}}}{\vB{\text{IRS distribution period for your age}}}$$

The distribution period comes from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table — a fixed reference table, not a calculation. A smaller distribution period (used at older ages) produces a larger required withdrawal for the same account balance.

Worked Example

A $500,000 account balance at age 75:

1. The IRS distribution period for age 75 is 24.6.
2. RMD: $500,000 ÷ 24.6 ≈ $20,325.

At age 73 — the youngest age anyone is currently required to take an RMD — the same $500,000 balance would only require withdrawing about $18,868 (distribution period 26.5) — the required fraction grows every year as the distribution period shrinks.