RMD Calculator

How the number is built

Your Required Minimum Distribution is last year's ending balance divided by a distribution period that comes from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. The period shrinks each year as you age, so the percentage you must withdraw rises steadily — from under 4% in your early seventies toward double digits in your nineties. This page uses the Uniform Lifetime Table, which applies to most account owners.

The penalty for missing it is severe

Fail to take the full RMD and the shortfall was historically taxed at 50%. SECURE 2.0 cut that to 25%, and to 10% if corrected promptly — still among the harshest penalties the IRS levies. The distribution itself is taxed as ordinary income, so an RMD can also push you into a higher bracket or raise the taxable portion of Social Security.

When RMDs start, and which accounts

The starting age is 73 for those born 1951–1959 and 75 for those born in 1960 or later. RMDs apply to traditional IRAs, 401(k)s and similar tax-deferred accounts — not to Roth IRAs during the owner's lifetime. If you have several IRAs you can total the RMDs and take the whole amount from one; 401(k)s must each satisfy their own.

Where this table does not apply

The Uniform Lifetime Table assumes a beneficiary who is not a much-younger spouse. If your sole beneficiary is a spouse more than ten years younger, the IRS Joint Life and Last Survivor Table gives a longer period and a smaller RMD, which this page does not model. Inherited accounts follow entirely different rules — a ten-year drawdown for most non-spouse beneficiaries since the SECURE Act — so an inherited IRA is not covered here either. For those situations, check the IRS Publication 590-B tables directly.

Frequently Asked Questions