RMD Calculator

What this RMD calculator does

You spent decades putting money into a retirement account without paying tax on it. At some point the government would quite like its share, and the mechanism it uses is the required minimum distribution. Once you hit a certain age you must pull a set amount out every year, and pay ordinary income tax on it.

This calculator works out that amount. Give it your account balance as of 31 December last year and your date of birth, and it returns your RMD, the distribution factor it used, and your age.

The arithmetic is a single division. The difficulty is entirely in getting the two inputs right, and particularly the age, which the IRS defines in a way that catches a lot of people out. That has a section of its own and it is the most important thing on this page.

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How to use it

1. Previous Year-End Balance. The fair market value of the account on 31 December of the year before the one you are calculating for. Not today's balance. Your custodian sends this figure out in January.
2. Your date of birth. Used to work out your age and which RMD start age applies to you.

Press Calculate. Press Reset to clear it.

One thing worth knowing about how it reads your age. The IRS uses your age on 31 December of the distribution year, not the age you happen to be on the day you sit down, and the tool does the same. So a birthday later in the year is already accounted for, and the factor it picks from the table below is the one the IRS would use. The next section shows why that distinction is worth money.

The tool also assumes the Uniform Lifetime Table applies to you, which it does for most people but not everyone. The exceptions are here.

The age the IRS wants, and it is not the one you are today

IRS Publication 590-B is precise about this. You use your age as of your birthday in the distribution year. In other words, the age you will be on 31 December of the year the withdrawal is for, not the age you happen to be on the day you sit down to work it out.

For someone born in January this makes no difference. For someone born in November, calculating in July, it makes a real one, because the factor for your current age is longer than the factor for the age you will actually reach.

Take a 500,000 balance and someone born 15 November 1950, working this out in July 2026. They are 75 today. On 31 December 2026 they will be 76.

A gap of $771.85, and it falls on the wrong side. Taking the smaller figure means under distributing, and under distributing is the one mistake with a penalty attached.

So the rule to hold on to: if your birthday has not happened yet this year, the age you want is one higher than the one you are. Look that age up in the table below and divide by that factor instead.

The formula

One line.

RMD = prior year-end balance ÷ distribution period

The distribution period, sometimes called the life expectancy factor or the applicable denominator, comes from a table the IRS publishes. It shortens every year you age, which is why your RMD climbs as a percentage of your balance even if the balance never moves.

A useful way to feel the shape of it: at 73 the factor of 26.5 makes your RMD about 3.8 percent of the balance. At 80 it is about 5 percent. At 90, roughly 8 percent. At 100, nearly 16 percent. The schedule is designed to run the account down over your remaining life expectancy, so it accelerates.

The current table has been in force since 1 January 2022, following a Treasury revision that lengthened life expectancies across the board and quietly reduced everybody's RMD.

A worked example

Traditional IRA, balance of 500,000 on 31 December 2025. You turn 75 during 2026.

The factor for age 75 is 24.6.

500,000 ÷ 24.6 = $20,325.20

That is the minimum you must take out during 2026, and it is taxable as ordinary income at your marginal rate, not at capital gains rates.

The word minimum is doing work there. You can always take more. The rule only sets a floor, and there are years where deliberately taking more than the floor is the better tax decision, particularly if a large balance is going to push you into a higher bracket later.

Next year, assuming the balance is still around 500,000, the factor drops to 23.7 and the RMD rises to $21,097. The year after, 22.9 and $21,834. Same balance, larger withdrawal, every year.

The Uniform Lifetime Table in full

This is Table III from Appendix B of IRS Publication 590-B, the one that applies to most account owners.

Find your age, divide your balance by the number next to it, and you have your RMD. That is the whole calculation, and having the table to hand means you can check any calculator's answer in about five seconds.

When your RMDs begin, and when they are due

The starting age has moved twice in recent years, so a lot of older guidance is now wrong. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act:

The deadlines are where the first year gets awkward. Your very first RMD is not due until 1 April of the year after you reach your starting age. Every RMD after that is due by 31 December.

Which creates a trap. Turn 73 in 2026 and delay your first RMD to March 2027, and you will take two distributions in 2027: the 2026 one by 1 April and the 2027 one by 31 December. Two years of taxable income stacked into one tax year, which for a lot of people means a higher bracket, higher Medicare premiums, and more of your Social Security taxed. Most advisers suggest taking the first one in the year you actually turn 73 for exactly that reason.

There is also a still working exception. If you are still employed past your RMD age and participate in that employer's plan, and you do not own 5 percent or more of the company, you can defer RMDs from that particular plan until you retire. It applies to employer plans only. IRAs get no such reprieve.

When this is the wrong table

The Uniform Lifetime Table covers most people. Two situations use a different one, and in both cases the difference is worth real money.

A spouse more than ten years younger, as sole beneficiary. Then you use Table II, the Joint and Last Survivor Table, which reflects two life expectancies rather than one and gives a considerably longer factor. A 75 year old with a 55 year old spouse uses about 30.5 instead of 24.6, which is roughly a fifth off the RMD. The spouse has to be the sole primary beneficiary for the whole calendar year, and naming anyone alongside them, including a trust or a charity, disqualifies it.

An inherited account. Beneficiaries use Table I, the Single Life Table, and the rules around inherited IRAs changed substantially under the SECURE Act. Most non spouse beneficiaries now face a ten year emptying rule rather than a lifetime stretch. That is a genuinely complicated area and worth proper advice rather than a calculator.

Two more things worth knowing about which accounts are even in scope. Roth IRAs have never required distributions during the owner's lifetime. And since 2024, Roth 401(k) accounts no longer do either, which was a welcome fix to an odd inconsistency.

Finally, on aggregating. If you have several traditional IRAs you can total the RMDs and take the whole amount from any one of them. Employer plans do not work that way. Each 401(k) must satisfy its own RMD separately.

What happens if you take too little

The IRS charges an excise tax on the shortfall. It used to be a punishing 50 percent. SECURE 2.0 reduced it to 25 percent, and to 10 percent if you notice, withdraw the missing amount, and file a corrected return within the correction window.

So on that $771 gap from the age example above, the exposure is roughly $193 at 25 percent. Not ruinous, but entirely avoidable, and it is the kind of thing that compounds if the same error repeats every year for a decade.

Worth saying plainly: this is one of the few tax rules where the penalty is for doing too little rather than too much. If you are unsure whether your age or your factor is right, taking slightly more than the calculated minimum costs you nothing beyond bringing forward some tax. Taking slightly less costs you a penalty.

Questions people ask

Which balance do I use?

The fair market value on 31 December of the year before the distribution year. For a 2026 RMD you use the 31 December 2025 balance, regardless of what the account is worth now.

What age do I use if my birthday is later this year?

The age you will be on 31 December of the distribution year. If your birthday has not happened yet, that is one more than your age today. See the section above.

At what age do RMDs start?

73 if you were born between 1951 and 1959, and 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. Anyone born earlier is already past their start age.

Do Roth accounts have RMDs?

Roth IRAs never have during the owner's lifetime. Roth 401(k) accounts stopped requiring them in 2024. Inherited Roth accounts are a different matter and generally do.

Can I take more than the RMD?

Yes, always. The rule sets a minimum, not a maximum. Taking more than the minimum in a low income year is a common and sensible tax strategy.

I have several IRAs. Do I need to take one from each?

No. Work out the RMD for each, add them up, and take the total from whichever you like. Employer plans such as 401(k)s do not allow this, each one must be satisfied on its own.

Can I give the money away instead of paying tax on it?

From an IRA, and from age 70 and a half, a qualified charitable distribution sent directly to a charity can count toward your RMD and stay out of your taxable income. There are annual limits and specific rules, so check them before relying on it.

References

A note on sourcing and on dates. The distribution factors reproduced here are Table III of Appendix B to IRS Publication 590-B, in force since 1 January 2022 following the Treasury revision finalised in November 2020. Start ages follow the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. Because tax rules change, and because individual circumstances such as beneficiary structure and account type alter which table applies, anyone acting on a figure from this page should confirm it against the current publication or with a tax professional.

1. Internal Revenue Service, Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs). https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590b.pdf
2. Internal Revenue Service, Retirement Topics: Required Minimum Distributions. https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-required-minimum-distributions-rmds
3. U.S. Department of the Treasury, Treasury Decision 9930, Updated Life Expectancy and Distribution Period Tables Used for Purposes of Determining Minimum Required Distributions, November 2020.