Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs): 2026 Age Rules, Deadlines, and Penalties

If you turn 73 or 75 this year (depending on when you were born), the IRS wants you to start pulling money out of your traditional retirement accounts — whether you need it or not. Skip it, and the penalty is steep: 25% of whatever you should have withdrawn.

This is one of the more confusing corners of retirement planning, mostly because the rules have changed twice in the last few years. Here’s where things actually stand for 2026.

What Age Do RMDs Start?

The RMD age depends entirely on your birth year, thanks to SECURE 2.0’s phased increase.

If you were born in 1959, note that there’s some ambiguity in how the IRS transition rule applies to your exact cohort — the safest move is to confirm your specific RMD age with your plan administrator or a tax professional rather than assume.

Your very first RMD has a grace period: you can wait until April 1 of the year after you hit your RMD age. Every RMD after that — including the second one, if you delayed the first — is due by December 31.

Robert, born in 1953, turns 73 in 2026. He can take his first RMD anytime in 2026, or wait until April 1, 2027. If he waits, he’ll owe two RMDs in 2027 (the delayed 2026 one plus the regular 2027 one) — which can push him into a higher tax bracket that year. Most people are better off just taking the first RMD in the year they turn 73.

How Much Do You Have to Withdraw?

Your RMD is calculated by dividing your account balance as of December 31 of the prior year by a life-expectancy factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table.

Diane, 76, had $450,000 in her traditional IRA at the end of last year. Her IRS life-expectancy factor at 76 is roughly 23.7. Her RMD for this year is $450,000 ÷ 23.7 ≈ $18,987.

That factor gets smaller every year, which means a larger percentage of your balance comes out annually as you age — by design, since the table assumes you’re drawing down the account over your remaining lifetime.

Subscribe or follow us and I’ll flag it if the IRS updates the life-expectancy tables or RMD age again.

Which Accounts Need an RMD — and Which Don’t

Traditional IRAs, traditional 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and most other employer plans all require RMDs once you hit your RMD age. The big exception, and a genuinely good piece of news from SECURE 2.0, is Roth accounts.

Roth 401(k) and Roth 403(b) plans stopped requiring RMDs on January 1, 2024. Before that, oddly, you had to take RMDs from a Roth 401(k) even though the withdrawals were tax-free — a quirk that tripped up a lot of retirees. Roth IRAs have never required RMDs for the original owner.

One more wrinkle: if you’re still working past your RMD age and don’t own more than 5% of the company, you may be able to delay 401(k) RMDs from your current employer’s plan only until you actually retire. That exception doesn’t extend to IRAs or old 401(k)s from previous employers — those still require RMDs on schedule regardless of your employment status.

Multiple Accounts: Aggregate or Separate?

This trips people up constantly. IRA RMDs can be aggregated — calculate the RMD for each IRA separately, add them up, then withdraw the total from any one IRA (or split however you like) as long as the total is satisfied.

401(k) RMDs cannot be aggregated across different employer plans. If you have two old 401(k)s from different employers, you must calculate and withdraw the RMD from each one individually. (403(b) accounts get their own aggregation rule, similar to IRAs, but only among other 403(b)s.)

If juggling RMDs across several old 401(k)s sounds like a headache, rolling them into a single IRA is one of the more common reasons people consolidate — it turns multiple separate RMD calculations into one.

Inherited Accounts: The 10-Year Rule

If you inherited an IRA or 401(k) from someone who died after 2019, the old “stretch IRA” strategy — spreading withdrawals over your own life expectancy — is mostly gone for non-spouse beneficiaries.

Most non-spouse beneficiaries now fall under the 10-year rule: the entire account must be emptied by December 31 of the 10th year after the owner’s death. For years, it wasn’t clear whether you also had to take annual withdrawals during those 10 years or could just wait and empty it all in year 10.

The IRS has now settled that: if the original owner had already started taking RMDs before they died, their beneficiary must take annual RMDs during the 10-year window too — not just a lump sum at the end. If the owner hadn’t started RMDs yet, the beneficiary can wait and take it all in year 10 if they prefer.

Spouse beneficiaries still get more flexibility — they can treat an inherited IRA as their own, roll it into their own IRA, or use their own life expectancy, generally the more favorable path.

The Penalty for Missing an RMD

SECURE 2.0 significantly softened this. The excise tax for a missed or shortfall RMD is now 25% of the amount you should have withdrawn but didn’t — down from the brutal 50% penalty that applied for decades.

It gets better: if you correct the mistake — take the missed RMD — within two years of when it was due, the penalty drops further to 10%. File Form 5329 to report and request the reduced penalty, and it’s worth requesting a full waiver too if you have a reasonable explanation (a common one: your custodian miscalculated it).

Using a QCD to Cover Your RMD

A Qualified Charitable Distribution lets you send money directly from your IRA to a qualified charity, and that amount counts toward your RMD without ever showing up as taxable income. For 2026, the QCD limit is $111,000.

Karen, 74, has a $20,000 RMD this year and doesn’t need the cash. She has her IRA custodian send $20,000 directly to her church and two other charities. Her RMD is satisfied, and none of that $20,000 appears as income on her tax return — a meaningfully better outcome than withdrawing it, paying tax, and then donating and claiming a deduction.

QCDs only work from IRAs, not 401(k)s, and the funds must go directly from the custodian to the charity — money that touches your hands first doesn’t qualify.

Common Issues to Watch Out For

I hear about the same handful of RMD mistakes every year, so here’s what to watch for.

Assuming your custodian calculated it correctly. Most do, but it’s your responsibility, not theirs, if the number is wrong. Double-check the math, especially in the year you turn your RMD age or the year after you inherit an account.

Forgetting an old 401(k) from a previous job. These don’t show up on your radar the way your current accounts do, but the RMD requirement (and the 25% penalty) applies just the same.

Not realizing the delayed first RMD creates a two-RMD tax year. Waiting until April 1 to take your first RMD feels like a smart delay, but it stacks two distributions into one calendar year and can bump you into a higher bracket.

Missing the inherited-account annual RMD requirement. If you inherited an account from someone who was already taking RMDs, don’t assume you can wait until year 10 to take anything out — you may owe annual RMDs the whole time.

Not using a QCD when you’re charitably inclined anyway. If you already give to charity and don’t need your RMD cash, routing it as a QCD is close to free money from a tax standpoint.

Looking Ahead: 2027

A few things are worth watching. The QCD limit is indexed for inflation each year, so expect a modest increase for 2027 announced alongside other retirement figures in October or November 2026 — see our 401(k) and IRA contribution limits guide for how these figures typically move.

Plan sponsors also have until December 31, 2026 to formally adopt several SECURE 2.0 provisions into their plan documents, including the Roth RMD elimination and the higher automatic-rollover cash-out threshold. Most plans have already operated as if these changes were in effect since 2024, but the paperwork deadline is this year — worth confirming with your plan administrator if anything seems inconsistent with what’s described here.

I’ll update this page as the IRS finalizes any further guidance on the inherited-account 10-year rule, which has been one of the more heavily revised areas of RMD policy since SECURE 2.0 passed. For more on this, see my guide on 401(k) and IRA Early Withdrawal Penalty: The 10% Rule and How to Avoid It, Cashing Out My 401(k) — Loans vs. Hardship Withdrawals, and 2026-2027 Key Retirement Ages for 401(k), IRA, and Social Security.