What your RMD result shows
The headline is this year’s required withdrawal: last December’s closing balance divided by the divisor the IRS publishes for your age. Nothing else affects it — not what the market has done since, not what you need, not what you would prefer.
The figure to watch over time is the share of the balance. The divisor shrinks every year, so the required percentage climbs — gently in your seventies, steeply later. That is the mechanism that eventually drains a tax-deferred account, and it is why the schedule below matters more than any single year’s number.
Because a traditional-account RMD is ordinary income, the after-tax line is what actually reaches you. And the last line prices the mistake: the excise tax on an RMD you fail to take.
How to use this RMD calculator
- Balance — the value on December 31 of the previous year, added up across your traditional IRAs. Your custodian’s year-end statement has it.
- Age — the age you reach during this calendar year. Your birthday’s position in the year does not change the divisor.
- Expected return — only affects the schedule ahead, never this year’s figure.
- Marginal rate — to see the withdrawal after tax. An RMD lands on top of your other income, so it can push you into a higher bracket.
The schedule projects 25 years, recomputing the divisor each year exactly as the IRS table does.
What an RMD is, and who has to take one
A required minimum distribution is the smallest amount you must withdraw each year from a tax-deferred retirement account once you reach the starting age. The logic is straightforward: the money went in untaxed, so the government eventually wants its share, and RMDs are the mechanism that forces the collection.
They apply to traditional IRAs, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, and most employer plans including 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) accounts. They do not apply to a Roth IRA during the owner’s lifetime, which is one of the strongest arguments for holding Roth money — it can compound untouched for as long as you live.
If you are still working past the starting age and do not own 5% or more of the business, you can usually defer distributions from that employer’s plan until you retire. That exception covers the plan you are still contributing to, not IRAs you hold elsewhere.
How the calculation works
RMD = prior year-end balance ÷ IRS divisor for your age
The divisor comes from the IRS Publication 590-B (2025) Uniform Lifetime Table, which most account owners use: unmarried owners, and married owners whose spouse is not more than ten years younger or is not the sole beneficiary. At 73 the divisor is 26.5, which makes the first RMD about 3.77% of the balance. By 80 it is 20.2 — roughly 4.95% — and by 90 it is 12.2, or about 8.2%.
One table is not covered here. If your sole beneficiary is a spouse more than ten years younger, the IRS Joint Life and Last Survivor table applies instead and your divisor is larger, so your required withdrawal is smaller than the figure above. That table is a two-dimensional age grid; rather than approximate it, this calculator points you to the publication.
The two traps
The first-year deferral. Your first RMD may be delayed to April 1 of the following year. Doing so does not cancel that year’s obligation — it moves it, so two distributions land in the same tax year, potentially pushing you into a higher bracket and raising the income that Medicare premiums are keyed to. Taking the first one on time usually costs less than deferring it.
Missing one. The excise tax is 25% of the amount you should have withdrawn, reduced to 10% if you correct it promptly and file the right form. It is one of the harshest penalties in the tax code for what is often an administrative oversight, and the reason many custodians offer automatic distributions.
Two related details. Each 401(k) must satisfy its own RMD separately, whereas IRAs can be aggregated and the total taken from any one of them. And an RMD cannot be rolled over or converted to a Roth — it has to leave the tax-deferred system before any conversion happens.
What to do with the money
You must withdraw it; you do not have to spend it. The requirement is about leaving the tax shelter, not about consumption, so an RMD you do not need can be reinvested in a taxable brokerage account and keep working — you simply pay tax on future gains, as the capital gains calculator shows.
Two planning moves are worth knowing. A qualified charitable distribution sends up to an annually indexed amount straight from an IRA to a charity, counts toward the RMD, and is excluded from your income — the most tax-efficient way to give if you are charitably inclined. And converting traditional money to Roth in the years before RMDs begin shrinks every future required distribution, because a Roth has none; that is the core of the pre-RMD conversion window in your sixties.
Either way, an RMD is a good annual prompt to look at the whole picture rather than one account — the retirement calculator for whether the plan holds, and your net worth for where the money actually sits.
Inherited accounts work differently
If you inherited the account rather than funded it, none of the above applies directly. Beneficiaries use a different IRS table, and since the SECURE Act most non-spouse beneficiaries must empty an inherited account within ten years of the original owner’s death rather than stretch withdrawals across their own lifetime.
Within that ten-year window the rules turn on whether the original owner had already started taking RMDs. If they had, annual distributions continue during the ten years as well as the final emptying; if they had not, the beneficiary can take nothing until year ten and then withdraw everything — which is rarely the cheapest choice, because a single large distribution lands in one tax year.
Spouses have more options, including treating the account as their own, which puts them back on the ordinary schedule this calculator models. Certain other beneficiaries — minor children of the owner, disabled or chronically ill individuals, and those within ten years of the owner’s age — are exempt from the ten-year rule and may still use life-expectancy distributions.
Because the answer depends on the relationship, the owner’s age at death and the date of death, an inherited account is worth checking with the custodian rather than estimating. The one thing worth internalising is the deadline: the ten-year clock is absolute, and a beneficiary who lets it run out faces the same excise tax as a missed RMD.
What this calculator assumes
- The Uniform Lifetime Table. Correct for most owners; not for a sole-beneficiary spouse more than ten years younger, nor for inherited accounts, which use different tables and rules entirely.
- Traditional, tax-deferred money. Roth IRAs have no lifetime RMD.
- A steady return in the schedule ahead. Markets do not oblige, and a poor year lowers next year’s RMD because the divisor applies to a smaller balance.
- Federal tax only, at the marginal rate you entered. Most states tax retirement income too, and several do not.
- Today’s starting age. It rises to 75 in 2033 under current law, which the projection does not attempt to anticipate.
These are planning estimates. Your custodian calculates the official figure, and a missed distribution is expensive enough to be worth confirming with them.
RMD questions people ask
What happens if I take more than the minimum?
Nothing bad — the minimum is a floor, not a cap. You can withdraw as much as you like, and the extra is taxed as ordinary income like the rest. Taking more than required does not reduce next year’s RMD directly, though it does reduce the balance the next calculation is based on.
Do I have to take an RMD from every account separately?
IRAs can be aggregated: work out the RMD for each, add them up, and take the total from whichever IRA you prefer. Employer plans such as 401(k)s cannot be aggregated — each plan must pay its own RMD.
Can I put my RMD into a Roth IRA?
Not directly. An RMD cannot be rolled over or converted, so it must be distributed and taxed first. You can then contribute to a Roth from other money if you have earned income and meet the income limits, or simply invest the proceeds in a taxable account.
Does a Roth 401(k) have RMDs?
No longer for the owner. Roth balances in employer plans are no longer subject to lifetime RMDs, which brings them into line with Roth IRAs. Beneficiaries who inherit any Roth account still face distribution rules.
What if the market falls after I calculate my RMD?
The figure stands, because it is based on the prior December 31 balance. A falling market means you withdraw a larger share of a smaller account — which is uncomfortable, and the reason some retirees hold the coming year’s distribution in cash rather than in the market.