Required Minimum Distributions are the federal government's way of forcing tax-deferred retirement savers to eventually withdraw — and pay tax on — the money they have sheltered for decades. The rules have been in flux since 2019, when the SECURE Act began pushing the triggering age upward, and they shift again in 2033 when the age rises to 75. For 2026, the RMD age remains 73 for anyone born between 1951 and 1959, which covers most people turning 73 in calendar year 2026. The calculation itself uses a published life-expectancy table, the penalty regime was softened by SECURE 2.0, and the Roth IRA remains the one account type exempt during the owner's lifetime. Getting the timing and the arithmetic right matters: a missed RMD can cost far more than a year of tax-deferred growth.
How the RMD Age Has Moved Over Time
Before 2020, the triggering age was 70½ — a vestige of the 1962 law that established the RMD framework, when Social Security's Full Retirement Age was also 65 and life expectancy was considerably shorter. The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019 pushed the age to 72 for anyone born after June 30, 1949, aligning it more closely with the modern retirement timeline. SECURE 2.0, passed in December 2022, then moved the age to 73 effective January 1, 2023, for anyone born between 1951 and 1959. The same law scheduled another increase to age 75 beginning in 2033, applying to anyone born in 1960 or later.
The age used is the age you attain in the calendar year, not your birthday. A person born in June 1953 reaches age 73 in 2026 and triggers the RMD requirement for that year, with the first distribution due by April 1, 2027. A person born in 1950 was already subject to RMDs under the age-72 rule and continues under that regime. The progressive schedule means that retirees in their late 60s today should plan for an age-75 trigger, while those already past 73 must continue taking distributions regardless of the future increase.
The April 1 Deadline and the Double-Distribution Trap
The Required Beginning Date — the deadline for your very first RMD — is April 1 of the year following the year you reach RMD age. Every subsequent RMD is due by December 31 of that same year. The April 1 grace period exists to give new RMD filers a single one-time opportunity to delay their first distribution, but it comes with a trap: if you defer the first RMD to April 1 of the following year, you must still take your second RMD by December 31 of that same year. The result is two taxable distributions in one calendar year.
This "double distribution" can push you into a higher tax bracket, trigger IRMAA surcharges on your Medicare premiums two years later, or increase the taxable portion of your Social Security benefits. As a practical matter, deferring the first RMD usually makes sense only if your income in the current year is unusually high — perhaps from a final year of work, a large Roth conversion, or a one-time capital gain — and you expect a clear step-down the following year. In most other cases, taking the first RMD by December 31 of the year you turn 73 avoids the bunching problem and simplifies the following year's tax planning.
The Uniform Lifetime Table: Where the Factors Come From
The RMD calculation itself is simple division: divide the prior December 31 account balance by a life-expectancy factor from the appropriate IRS table. For most account owners, that table is the Uniform Lifetime Table in IRS Publication 590-B. The current version of the table was issued in 2022 and reflects longer life expectancies than the prior 2002 version — the factor at age 73 is 27.4 under the new table, compared to 26.5 under the old. At age 75, the factor is 24.7; at age 80, it is 20.2; at age 85, it is 16.0; at age 90, it is 12.2. The factor decreases each year, forcing a slightly larger percentage of the account out the door as you age.
The Uniform Lifetime Table is built on the joint life expectancy of an account owner and a hypothetical beneficiary exactly 10 years younger, which is why the factors are longer than a single-life expectancy table. For an account owner with a $500,000 balance at age 73, the 2026 RMD is $500,000 ÷ 27.4 = $18,248. The same balance at age 80 produces a $24,752 RMD, and at age 85 the RMD reaches $31,250. The IRS recalculated the table in 2022 to reflect updated mortality data from 2010-2012, extending most factors by about one year of life expectancy.
When You Can Use the Joint Life Table Instead
The Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy Table produces smaller RMDs than the Uniform Lifetime Table, but it is available only to account owners whose sole beneficiary is a surviving spouse more than 10 years younger. If you meet this test — and the spousal beneficiary designation must be in place as of January 1 of the distribution year — you can look up the actual joint life expectancy of you and your spouse, which produces a longer factor and a smaller distribution. A 75-year-old with a 60-year-old spouse uses a factor of 27.4 from the Joint Life Table instead of 24.7 from the Uniform Table, reducing the RMD on a $500,000 account from $20,243 to $18,248.
This exception does not extend to non-spouse beneficiaries, even if they are substantially younger. A 75-year-old with a 50-year-old domestic partner or a younger adult child as sole beneficiary must still use the Uniform Lifetime Table. The rules change again at death: non-spouse designated beneficiaries who inherit an IRA after 2019 are generally subject to the 10-year rule under SECURE Act section 401, requiring full distribution by December 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of death — though exceptions exist for eligible designated beneficiaries such as minor children, disabled individuals, and beneficiaries less than 10 years younger than the decedent.
The 25% Penalty and the 10% Correction Window
SECURE 2.0 cut the excise tax on missed or insufficient RMDs in half, from 50% to 25%, effective for tax years beginning after December 29, 2022. Better still, if you correct the shortfall in a timely manner — generally within two years and before the IRS assesses the tax — the penalty drops further to 10%. The 25% (or 10%) applies only to the shortfall amount, not the entire account balance. A $20,000 RMD that was underpaid by $5,000 triggers a penalty of $1,250 at the standard rate, or $500 if corrected within the window.
To claim the reduced penalty, you must file Form 5329 with your individual income tax return for the year of the shortfall, attach a brief explanation of the error, and confirm that the shortfall has been distributed. The IRS routinely grants relief when the shortfall was due to reasonable error and corrective steps were taken — common scenarios include a custodian error, an illness during the distribution window, or confusion over which accounts require aggregation. The form is straightforward, but many taxpayers miss it because custodians do not always flag the shortfall before the year-end deadline.
Roth IRAs and the Aggregation Rules
Roth IRAs are uniquely exempt from RMDs during the original owner's lifetime, a status preserved under both the SECURE Act and SECURE 2.0. A Roth IRA owner can leave the entire balance untouched indefinitely, and the account continues to grow tax-free until withdrawn or inherited. This exemption does not extend to Roth 401(k), Roth 403(b), or Roth 457(b) accounts, which were historically subject to RMDs — though SECURE 2.0 eliminated RMDs for Roth 401(k) and Roth 403(b) accounts starting in 2024. If you have a Roth 401(k) and want to avoid forced distributions, a direct rollover to a Roth IRA is the cleanest path.
For traditional IRAs, the aggregation rule lets you calculate the RMD separately for each IRA but take the total from any one IRA or combination of IRAs. If you have three traditional IRAs with balances of $100,000, $200,000, and $300,000, you calculate each RMD separately using the appropriate factor (which will be the same if all are owned by the same person), sum the three amounts, and can satisfy the combined RMD from whichever account you prefer. This rule does not apply to 401(k)s or other employer plans — each plan must distribute its own RMD. Inherited IRAs are also not aggregable with your own IRAs. To project your required distribution for the current year, plug your December 31 balance and age into our RMD calculator, which applies the current Uniform Lifetime Table factors automatically.
For broader retirement-account strategy, see our 401(k) vs IRA comparison on prioritizing contributions across account types.
Last reviewed June 5, 2026. This article is informational and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional for guidance specific to your situation.