Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs): The Rules in Plain English

What age do RMDs start?

The SECURE 2.0 Act raised the RMD starting age (the "applicable age"). The IRS's 2024 final regulations set it by birth year:

Deadlines, and the first-year double RMD

• First RMD: due by April 1 of the year after the year you reach your starting age. The IRS calls this your required beginning date.
• Every later RMD: due by December 31 of that year.
• Two in one year: if you wait until April 1 for your first RMD, the second one is still due by December 31 of that same year. Both count as income in that year.

How an RMD is figured

For each account: the balance on December 31 of last year ÷ the divisor for your age this year. The divisor comes from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table (Table III in Publication 590-B, Appendix B). Use the age you reach on your birthday this year.

Uniform Lifetime Table divisors, ages 73 to 96 (the full table runs to 120 and older):

Exception: if your spouse is the sole beneficiary of the account for the whole year and is more than 10 years younger than you, you use the Joint and Last Survivor table (Table II) instead, which gives a smaller RMD. Our calculator doesn't cover that case.

You can always take out more than the RMD. Extra withdrawals in one year don't count toward a later year's RMD. RMDs can't be rolled over into another retirement account.

Use the RMD calculator

More than one account

The IRS gives this kind of example: with an RMD from an IRA and another from a 401(k), each one has to be taken from its own account.

Roth accounts

Roth IRAs don't have RMDs while the owner is alive. Roth accounts inside 401(k) and 403(b) plans (designated Roth accounts) don't either. Beneficiaries who inherit a Roth account are subject to the RMD rules.

Still working past your starting age

For a 401(k), 403(b) or similar plan at the employer you still work for, the plan may let you wait until April 1 of the year after you retire, if the plan allows it. This doesn't apply if you own more than 5% of the business, and it never applies to IRAs. IRA RMDs start at your starting age even if you're still working.

Missed or short RMDs

• The excise tax is 25% of the amount you should have taken but didn't.
• It drops to 10% if you take the missed amount and file a corrected return within the IRS correction window (generally within 2 years).
• It's reported on Form 5329. The Form 5329 instructions explain how to ask the IRS to waive the tax for reasonable error when you're fixing the shortfall.

Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs)

A QCD is a direct transfer from your IRA to a qualifying charity. It's available once you're age 70½, which can be before your RMDs start. A QCD isn't included in your taxable income, and it counts toward your RMD for the year. The yearly QCD limit is $111,000 for 2026 (shown on the IRS worksheet in Publication 590-B). QCDs come from IRAs, not from 401(k) plans.

Inherited IRAs and plans

The rules depend on who inherits and when the owner died.

• Eligible designated beneficiaries (a surviving spouse, the owner's minor child, a disabled or chronically ill person, or someone not more than 10 years younger than the owner) generally can take distributions over their life expectancy.
• Most other individual beneficiaries must empty the account by the end of the 10th year after the owner's death (the 10-year rule).
• If the owner died before their required beginning date, no yearly RMD is required during years 1 to 9 under the 10-year rule. If the owner died on or after it, yearly RMDs are also required during those years.

The math for inherited accounts uses a different table (the Single Life Expectancy table) and isn't covered by our calculator. See IRS Publication 590-B.

How RMDs are taxed in Connecticut and North Carolina

RMDs from traditional accounts are taxed as ordinary income on your federal return, except any part that was already taxed (basis, for example from nondeductible IRA contributions). They can also make more of your Social Security taxable.

• Connecticut: the CT Office of Legislative Research reports an income-based deduction for traditional IRA distributions of 75% for 2025 and 100% starting in 2026, for taxpayers under the income limits, phasing out at higher incomes.
• North Carolina: IRA and plan distributions are generally taxed at the flat individual rate, 3.99% for tax years after 2025, unless an exception such as the Bailey retirement deduction applies.

Read more: Is Social Security taxable in CT and NC?