How is an RMD calculated?

Prior-year-end pre-tax balance ÷ your age's divisor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. At 73 the divisor is 26.5, so a $500,000 IRA requires about $18,868. The divisor shrinks each year, so the required percentage rises with age — from ~3.8% at 73 to ~8% by 90.

Age 73 for people born 1951–1959, rising to 75 for those born 1960 or later (SECURE 2.0). Your very first RMD can be delayed until April 1 of the following year — but that means two taxable RMDs land in the same year, which often costs more in tax.

What accounts have RMDs?

Pre-tax accounts: Traditional IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs. Roth IRAs have none during the owner's lifetime, and (since 2024) Roth 401(k)s don't either. Inherited accounts follow different, stricter rules not covered by this table.

What's the penalty for missing an RMD?

25% of the amount not taken (reduced to 10% if corrected within two years) — down from the old 50%, but still among the harshest penalties in the tax code. Most custodians will calculate and auto-distribute on request; setting that up once removes the risk.

Retirement & tax

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RMD Calculator

From age 73 — 75 if you were born in 1960 or later — the IRS requires a yearly withdrawal from pre-tax retirement accounts — needed or not, taxed as ordinary income. See this year's required amount, the tax bite, and the full year-by-year schedule. Not there yet? See what your first RMD is on track to be.

Your numbers

Results update as you type.

Pre-tax balance (Traditional IRA/401k)

Your age

Expected return

Marginal tax rate

Required this year

Share of balance

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Estimated tax

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Yours after tax

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Year-by-year RMD schedule

Balance grows at your assumed return, net of each year's withdrawal. Divisors from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table (2022+).

What converting before your RMDs start would save

Convert to Roth per year

Converting has its own tax bill this calculator doesn't price — the Roth conversion calculator does. What this shows is the RMD side: how much less the IRS forces out later.

Worth knowing: this calculator reads your start age from your age — 73 if you were born before 1960, 75 from 1960 on. It uses the Uniform Lifetime Table only — inherited IRAs follow the stricter 10-year rule, and a spouse more than 10 years younger uses the Joint Life table (smaller RMDs). Roth IRAs have no lifetime RMDs. Your first RMD can defer to April 1 of the next year, but doubling up two RMDs in one tax year often costs more.

Why RMDs exist — and why they sneak up on people

The Traditional-account deal was always "tax later." RMDs are the IRS collecting: from age 73, a rising share of your pre-tax balance must come out — and be taxed — every year, whether you need the income or not. The mechanics are simple (balance ÷ an age divisor), but the consequences compound: the required percentage climbs from ~3.8% at 73 to ~8% at 90, and for savers with large pre-tax balances the forced income can push tax brackets, Medicare IRMAA premiums, and the taxable share of Social Security all upward at once.

The formula and the table's first rows

RMD = prior Dec 31 balance ÷ divisor(age)

Uniform Lifetime Table divisors: 73→26.5 · 74→25.5 · 75→24.6 · 80→20.2 · 85→16.0 · 90→12.2 · 95→8.9. Example anchor: $800,000 at 75 → 800,000 ÷ 24.6 = $32,520.

The planning window is before 73, not after

Once RMDs start, your options shrink — the withdrawal is mandatory. The real lever is the decade before: in lower-income years (especially between retiring and claiming Social Security), Roth conversions move money out of the pre-tax pot at cheap rates, shrinking every future RMD. If you're pre-73, the calculator's projection shows what your first RMD is on track to be — if that number looks like more income than you'll want, that's the signal to look at conversions now.

If you don't need the money

The RMD must come out, but it doesn't have to be spent: reinvest it in a taxable account (the tax is owed either way), or — often better at 70½+ — send it directly to charity as a qualified charitable distribution (QCD), which satisfies the RMD while excluding it from income entirely, up to the annual cap.

What do RMDs trigger besides the withdrawal itself?

The withdrawal is the visible part. The knock-ons are what make RMDs a planning problem rather than a paperwork problem.

Every RMD dollar is ordinary income, stacked on top of Social Security and everything else. The size is set by a life-expectancy table — roughly 3.8% of the balance at 73, climbing past 7% by the late 80s — so on a large pre-tax pot it's a five- or six-figure forced income. That stacking can push you into brackets you thought you'd retired from, and it can increase how much of your Social Security is taxed.

It can also raise your Medicare premiums. Above an income threshold, Medicare charges IRMAA surcharges — and they have three unfriendly properties: they're charged per person, so a couple pays twice; they're a cliff, not a rate, so one dollar over a threshold costs the entire tier; and they're priced on your income from two years earlier. Recurring RMD income can hold a household above those cliffs year after year.

The compliance side has teeth too. Missing an RMD costs 25% of the amount that should have been taken, reduced to 10% if corrected quickly. Custodians calculate the number, but the responsibility is legally yours.

Two structural notes round it out. Roth accounts are the exception — Roth IRAs, and since 2024 Roth 401(k)s, have no RMDs during your lifetime, which is exactly why conversions in cheap-tax years earlier in retirement are a planning lever: money moved to Roth is money that can never be forced out at a bad time. And the rules differ for inherited accounts — most non-spouse heirs are on a 10-year clock with its own mechanics, not this table.

None of this makes RMDs avoidable once 73 arrives. It makes the decade before 73 the interesting one.

Common questions

Do I take an RMD from each account separately?

IRAs can be aggregated — compute the total across all your IRAs and take it from any one. 401(k)s cannot: each requires its own RMD. Consolidating old 401(k)s into an IRA simplifies this (weigh it against 401(k)-specific perks like the Rule of 55 first).

Does the RMD stop Social Security or bump my Medicare premium?

It doesn't stop anything, but the forced income counts toward the thresholds that set your Medicare IRMAA surcharge and how much of your Social Security is taxable — the quiet second-order costs of a large pre-tax balance.

Are RMDs still required if I'm working at 73?

Your current employer's 401(k) can be exempt while you're still working there (if the plan allows and you own under 5% of the company) — but all your IRAs and old 401(k)s still require RMDs regardless of work status.

Why does the schedule's balance sometimes keep growing?

In the early years the required percentage (~4%) can be below your return assumption, so the balance rises even as you withdraw. The divisor eventually forces the percentage past any realistic return — by the late 80s the balance turns down under the math's own weight.

Model RMDs inside your whole retirement plan

Tesserae's Plan simulates RMDs against your actual accounts — the tax drag over decades, and whether Roth conversions before 73 are worth it, with the ending balances both ways. Privacy-first: you enter your own numbers, and we never touch your bank login.

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