RMDs Explained: Ages, the Uniform Lifetime Table, and the First-Year Rule

A required minimum distribution (RMD) is the smallest amount the IRS requires you to withdraw each year from a traditional IRA, a 401(k), and most other tax-deferred retirement accounts, once you reach the required age. The amount is the prior year-end balance divided by a life-expectancy factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. The age at which RMDs begin depends on your birth year under the SECURE 2.0 Act, the first year has a special deadline that creates two withdrawals in one year, and the penalty for missing one is 25% of the amount not taken. This guide covers the schedule, the table, and the exceptions — not the inherited-IRA rules, which have their own article linked below.

The schedule: which age, which birth years

Under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, the RMD age is 73 for anyone born in 1951 through 1959, and 75 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Anyone born in 1950 or earlier was already subject to the earlier ages — 70½ under the original rules, 72 under SECURE 1.0 — and those RMDs continue. The age is fixed by birth year and does not move with retirement: a person born in 1955 who works until 78 still takes RMDs from age 73, from IRAs and from former employers’ plans, though a still-working exception can defer 401(k) RMDs from a current employer’s plan for a non-owner employee, which is covered below.

The year you reach the RMD age is the first distribution year. The RMD for that year is based on the balance on 31 December of the previous year, divided by the factor for the age you reach in the distribution year. A person born in 1953 reaches 73 in 2026: the 2026 RMD is the 31 December 2025 balance divided by 26.5. The deadline is 31 December of the distribution year, except for the first year, which may be delayed to 1 April of the following year — the first-year rule, covered next. Every year after the first has the 31 December deadline, with no extension.

Roth IRAs have no RMDs for the original owner, at any age — the SECURE 2.0 Act’s exemption is the reason Roth conversions are weighed against RMDs. Roth 401(k)s were brought into line: from 2024, no RMDs are required from Roth balances in employer plans during the owner’s lifetime. Traditional IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and most other tax-deferred accounts all require RMDs. An account that requires RMDs and one that does not should not be averaged together: each account’s RMD is computed separately, though IRA RMDs may be aggregated and taken from any one IRA, while 401(k) RMDs must be taken from each plan separately.

The Uniform Lifetime Table: the factor, and the arithmetic

The Uniform Lifetime Table gives a distribution period — a life-expectancy factor — for each age from 72 upward. The RMD is the prior year-end balance divided by the factor for the age reached in the distribution year. The factors: 73: 26.5, 74: 25.5, 75: 24.6, 76: 23.7, 77: 22.9, 78: 22.0, 79: 21.1, 80: 20.2, 81: 19.4, 82: 18.5, 83: 17.7, 84: 16.8, 85: 16.0, 86: 15.2, 87: 14.4. The table continues beyond 87, falling by roughly 0.8–0.9 a year, and it is a joint-life table: it assumes a beneficiary 10 years younger, which is why it is more generous than a single-life expectancy.

Worked example. A $500,000 balance on 31 December, owner age 73: $500,000 ÷ 26.5 = $18,867.92, about $18,868. The same $500,000 at age 80: $500,000 ÷ 20.2 = $24,752.48. The RMD rises as the factor falls, even if the balance is unchanged, and it rises faster if the balance grows. The table’s design is deliberate: the factor falls slowly at first and faster later, so the withdrawals accelerate with age, drawing the account down over the remaining lifetime without exhausting it early. The RMD Calculator applies the table to the entered balance and age, and shows the RMD for the coming years so the acceleration is visible.

The spouse exception uses a different table. If the sole beneficiary is a spouse more than 10 years younger, the Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy Table applies instead, with larger factors and smaller RMDs. The difference is material: at 73 with a spouse 15 years younger, the factor is larger than 26.5, and the RMD is smaller. The Uniform Lifetime Table is the default; the joint table is the exception, and it applies only where the spouse is the sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, for the whole year. Check the beneficiary designation before choosing the table.

The first-year rule, the penalty, and the exceptions

The first RMD may be delayed until 1 April of the year after the RMD age is reached. Delaying is allowed, but it creates two RMDs in the second year: the delayed first RMD by 1 April, and the second year’s RMD by 31 December. Two withdrawals in one tax year means two years’ income taxed in one year, which can push the taxpayer into a higher bracket, raise Medicare premiums (IRMAA), and increase the tax on Social Security benefits. For most people, taking the first RMD in the first year — by 31 December — is the better tax outcome, and the delay is worth taking only where the first year’s income is unusually low.

The penalty for a missed or short RMD is an excise tax of 25% of the amount not withdrawn, under SECURE 2.0 — reduced from 50%. If the shortfall is corrected promptly, generally within two years, the rate falls to 10%, and the IRS may waive it entirely where the failure was due to reasonable error and steps were taken to remedy it. The correction is to withdraw the shortfall, file Form 5329, and request the waiver with an explanation. The penalty is per account and per year, and it is the reason RMDs should be diarised: the cost of forgetting is a quarter of the amount, which on a $20,000 RMD is $5,000.

Exceptions and special cases. The still-working exception defers RMDs from a current employer’s 401(k) (not an IRA, and not a plan of a business the employee owns 5% or more of) until retirement. Qualified charitable distributions — up to the annual limit, indexed — can satisfy an IRA RMD directly to a charity, excluded from income. Inherited IRAs follow different rules entirely — the 10-year rule for most non-spouse beneficiaries under SECURE 1.0 — and they are beyond this guide’s scope — the IRA calculator covers the accounts themselves. And a 401(k) RMD cannot be satisfied from an IRA, nor vice versa: the accounts are separate for RMD purposes, whatever the aggregation rules allow within IRAs.

Worked table: the same $500,000, ages 73 to 80

The factor falls every year, and the RMD rises every year, even when the balance does not move. On a $500,000 balance held constant — an illustration, since a real balance moves with markets and withdrawals — the RMD at 73 is $18,867.92; at 74, $19,607.84; at 75, $20,325.20; at 76, $21,097.05; at 77, $21,834.06; at 78, $22,727.27; at 79, $23,696.68; and at 80, $24,752.48. Over those eight years the annual withdrawal rises by $5,884.56, or 31%, on an unchanged balance. The rise is the table’s design: the factor is a life expectancy, and a shorter remaining expectancy divides the balance into larger annual pieces.

A real balance does not stay constant, and the two movements interact. If the balance grows at 5% a year while the factor falls, the RMD grows faster than either movement alone: the balance is larger and the divisor is smaller, and the product compounds. If the balance falls — a market decline, or withdrawals larger than the RMD — the RMD can still rise, because the factor’s fall can outweigh the balance’s fall, and a retiree who expects a smaller RMD after a bad year is often surprised. The calculator’s multi-year view shows the interaction: enter the balance, the growth assumption, and the ages, and the RMD path is visible before the first withdrawal is taken.

The tax consequence follows the RMD, not the balance. Each year’s RMD is ordinary income in the year it is withdrawn, and the rising RMD path means rising taxable income from the account, even before any other income is counted. The planning responses — Roth conversions in low-income years before RMDs begin, qualified charitable distributions once they do, and timing the first RMD into the first year rather than delaying it — all work by moving income between years, and they all depend on the RMD path being known. The table is therefore not a curiosity; it is the forecast the planning is built on, and it should be run for the actual balance, at the actual ages, before the first RMD year arrives.

Balance held constant for illustration; a real balance moves with markets and withdrawals.

Qualified charitable distributions: giving the RMD away

A qualified charitable distribution (QCD) is a direct transfer from an IRA to a qualified charity, which counts toward the RMD and is excluded from the owner’s income. The transfer must go directly from the IRA custodian to the charity — a cheque the owner cashes and then donates does not qualify — and it must be from an IRA, not from a 401(k), though a 401(k) balance can be rolled into an IRA first. The amount is limited to the annual IRS limit, indexed for inflation, and it must be a distribution that would otherwise be taxable. The exclusion is the benefit: the RMD is satisfied without the income appearing on the return, which also keeps adjusted gross income lower for the purposes of Medicare premiums, the tax on Social Security benefits, and the phase-outs that depend on it.

The QCD suits the owner who gives anyway and does not itemise. A charitably inclined owner who takes the standard deduction gets no tax benefit from an ordinary donation, because the donation is not deducted — but a QCD excludes the income entirely, which is a benefit whether or not the owner itemises. The owner who itemises and donates appreciated stock may do better with the stock, whose capital gain is avoided as well; the owner who donates cash and itemises may do equally well either way. The comparison is between the QCD’s income exclusion and the itemised deduction’s value at the owner’s marginal rate, and the QCD wins wherever the deduction would have been wasted — the standard-deduction case, the low-marginal-rate case, and the case where the income itself triggers other costs.

The mechanics need care. The transfer must be completed by 31 December to count for that year’s RMD, and the custodian’s processing time — days to weeks at year-end — means the instruction should be given well before December. The charity must acknowledge the gift, the owner must report the distribution on the return with the QCD amount noted, and the 1099-R will show the full distribution, with the QCD identified by the owner’s reporting. A QCD that misses the deadline, goes to a non-qualifying recipient such as a donor-advised fund or a private foundation, or is routed through the owner’s account, fails — and the failure is discovered at filing, when the year is over. Start early, confirm the recipient qualifies, and keep the acknowledgement.

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