US Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Calculator

About the US Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Calculator

Traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs and workplace plans such as 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans cannot keep their money forever: from your RMD age the IRS requires a required minimum distribution (RMD) every year. It is the account balance on December 31 of the previous year divided by a life expectancy figure from the IRS tables for your age that year — the Uniform Lifetime Table, or the Joint and Last Survivor Table when your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger.

This calculator finds your RMD age from your year of birth (73, or 75 for people born in 1960 or later), the right table and divisor, the deadline (April 1 of the next year for the first RMD, December 31 after that), the still-working exception for workplace plans, what is left to take and the excise tax if you take too little, and projects your RMDs year by year at a growth rate you choose. Roth IRAs need no RMD while you are alive; inherited IRAs follow the beneficiary rules explained below.

When RMDs start

Your RMD age depends on your date of birth (26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-2(9)-2)): 73 for people born from 1951 through 1958, 75 for people born in 1960 or later. For people born in 1959 the law gives both ages; the IRS’s proposed regulations treat it as 73. People born before 1951 started at 70½ or 72 and are already taking RMDs.

• The first RMD is for the year you reach that age, and you can delay it until April 1 of the following year. Every later RMD is due by December 31 of its year — so delaying the first means two RMDs, both taxable, in the second year.
• Still working: a 401(k), 403(b) or other employer plan can let you wait until the year you retire, unless you own more than 5% of the employer. This never applies to IRAs (IRS RMD FAQs).
• Roth IRAs and designated Roth accounts in workplace plans have no RMDs while the owner is alive.

How the RMD is figured

RMD = balance on December 31 of the previous year ÷ applicable denominator. The denominator comes from IRS Publication 590-B, Appendix B, which reprints the tables of 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-9(9)-9):

• Uniform Lifetime Table (Table III) for most owners: 26.5 at 73, 25.5 at 74, 24.6 at 75, 22.0 at 78, 20.2 at 80, 16.0 at 85, 12.2 at 90 and 6.4 at 100.
• Joint and Last Survivor Table (Table II) when your spouse is the sole designated beneficiary and more than 10 years younger: it uses both ages, gives a longer period and so a smaller RMD.

Use your age, and your spouse’s, on your birthdays in the distribution year. Marital status counts as of January 1: a divorce or death later in the year changes the table only from the next year.

Several accounts, taking it and taxes

• IRAs: work out the RMD of each IRA, then take the total from any one or more of them. 403(b) contracts work the same way. 401(k) and 457(b) RMDs must come from each plan separately.
• You can take the RMD in installments during the year, or more than the minimum — but an excess does not count toward later years, and RMDs cannot be rolled over into another IRA or plan.
• RMDs are taxed as ordinary income, except any part that is basis (after-tax contributions) or a qualified Roth distribution. A qualified charitable distribution paid directly from an IRA to a charity counts toward the RMD.
• Your IRA custodian or plan administrator may calculate the RMD for you, but you are responsible for taking the right amount.

Missed RMD: the excise tax

If you take less than the RMD by its deadline, the shortfall is subject to an excise tax of 25%, reduced to 10% when the RMD is corrected in time (generally within two years). You report it on Form 5329 with your return for that year; if the shortfall came from a reasonable error and you are taking reasonable steps to fix it, you can ask on Form 5329, with a letter of explanation, for the tax to be waived (IRS RMD FAQs).

Inherited IRAs and the 10-year rule

This calculator works out lifetime RMDs from your own accounts. For an account owner who died after 2019 (Pub 590-B):

• Most beneficiaries must empty the account by December 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the owner’s death — the 10-year rule.
• Eligible designated beneficiaries — the surviving spouse, the owner’s minor child, a disabled or chronically ill person, or anyone not more than 10 years younger than the owner — can take distributions over their life expectancy (Table I) instead. A minor child switches to the 10-year rule on reaching majority.
• If the owner died before their required beginning date and the 10-year rule applies, nothing has to be taken before the 10th year. If the owner died on or after it, yearly RMDs continue, based on the longer of the beneficiary’s and the owner’s life expectancy, and a beneficiary who is not an eligible designated beneficiary must still finish within 10 years.
• A surviving spouse who is the sole beneficiary can treat the IRA as their own; their own RMD age and Table III then apply.

Limitations

• Lifetime RMDs of an owner’s own traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs and defined contribution plans. Annuity payouts, defined benefit pensions and inherited accounts are not calculated.
• One account at a time: run it for each IRA or plan and add up the IRAs yourself.
• Pre-1987 403(b) balances, which can wait until age 75, and plan-specific rules are not modelled; your plan may also require distributions earlier than the law does.
• The projection assumes the RMD is withdrawn at the end of each year and the rest grows at the rate you enter; real returns vary.
• The tables follow the regulation. In one cell of the reprint in Publication 590-B (owner 90, spouse 76) the publication shows 14.8 and the regulation 14.7; the regulation’s 14.7 is used.

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