RMD Calculator

How to use this calculator

1. Account: choose your own IRA or 401(k), or an inherited account. For inherited accounts, pick whether you are the surviving spouse, another eligible designated beneficiary, or a beneficiary under the 10-year rule.
2. Your birth year: this sets your RMD age and your age for the IRS table.
3. Balance on Dec 31 last year: the year-end value from your December statement. RMDs always use the previous year-end balance, not today’s.
4. For your own account, say whether your spouse is your sole beneficiary and their birth year. If they are more than 10 years younger, you get a smaller RMD.
5. For an inherited account, enter the year the owner died and the owner’s birth year, which tells the calculator whether they had reached their required beginning date.
6. Open More options to change the assumed return used for the projection, or to calculate next year’s RMD.

The result shows this year’s RMD and deadline, followed by a year-by-year projection of future RMDs.

The RMD formula

The distribution period comes from one of three IRS life expectancy tables in Publication 590-B:

• Uniform Lifetime Table (Table III): most account owners.
• Joint and Last Survivor Table (Table II): owners whose spouse is the sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger.
• Single Life Expectancy Table (Table I): beneficiaries of inherited accounts.

Use your age on your birthday this year, even if your birthday hasn’t arrived yet.

Worked example

You were born in 1952, so you turn 74 in 2026. Your IRA held $500,000 on December 31, 2025. The Uniform Lifetime Table gives 25.5 at age 74:

$500,000 ÷ 25.5 = $19,607.84, due by December 31, 2026.

If your wife, the sole beneficiary of the IRA, was born in 1963, she turns 63 in 2026, eleven years younger than you. The Joint Life Table gives 26.2 for ages 74 and 63, so the RMD drops to $19,083.97.

Assuming the account earns 5% a year and you take only the minimum, your RMDs rise over time because the divisor shrinks faster than the balance:

Uniform Lifetime Table: RMD on $500,000 by age

When RMDs start

Your first RMD can wait until April 1 of the following year. If you wait, you take two RMDs in that second year, which can push you into a higher tax bracket and raise Medicare premiums. Someone born in 1953 turns 73 in 2026, so their first RMD can wait until April 1, 2027, and their 2027 RMD is due by December 31, 2027.

If you’re still working at 73 and don’t own more than 5% of the company, most 401(k) plans let you delay RMDs from that employer’s plan until you retire. That exception never applies to IRAs.

Inherited IRAs and 401(k)s

The rules depend on who you are and when the owner died.

• Surviving spouse: you can roll the account into your own IRA and follow the owner rules above. If you keep it as an inherited account, your RMD uses the Single Life Table at your age each year. If your spouse died before their required beginning date, you can wait until the year they would have reached their RMD age.
• Other eligible designated beneficiaries: the owner’s minor child, a disabled or chronically ill person, or anyone not more than 10 years younger than the owner. You can stretch withdrawals over your life expectancy: look up the Single Life Table at your age in the year after the death, then subtract 1 for each later year.
• Everyone else (10-year rule): if the owner died in 2020 or later, the account must be empty by December 31 of the tenth year after the death. If the owner had already started RMDs, you must also take annual RMDs in years one through nine.

For example, say you were born in 1975 and inherited a $300,000 IRA from a parent born in 1948 who died in 2025, after starting RMDs. Your 2026 divisor is 35.3 (Table I at age 51), so the RMD is $8,499. Each year the divisor falls by 1, and whatever is left, about $369,000 at a 5% return, must come out by December 31, 2035.

The IRS waived penalties for missed annual RMDs under the 10-year rule for 2021 through 2024 while it finished the regulations. Annual RMDs have been required since 2025.

Tips for managing RMDs

• Take more than the minimum in low-income years if you expect a higher bracket later. Excess withdrawals don’t count toward future years, though.
• Qualified charitable distributions sent straight from an IRA to a charity, from age 70½, count toward your RMD and stay out of your taxable income.
• Spread a 10-year payout rather than waiting until year ten. A single large withdrawal can be taxed at a much higher rate.
• Withhold tax from the RMD to cover your federal bill instead of making separate estimated payments. Our income tax calculator shows what that bracket costs.

Assumptions and limitations

The projection assumes a steady return, that you withdraw only the RMD, and that it comes out at year-end. Real returns vary, so recalculate each January with your actual December 31 balance. The calculator uses birth years, so it treats someone born in 1949 as having an RMD age of 72 and treats an owner who died in the first three months of the year after reaching RMD age as having passed their required beginning date. It doesn’t cover trusts or estates as beneficiaries, minor children reaching 21, or annuity contracts held inside an IRA. To see how withdrawals fit your whole plan, try the retirement calculator.

Sources

• IRS: Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements, including Appendix B life expectancy tables
• IRS: Retirement topics, required minimum distributions
• Federal Register: Required Minimum Distributions, final regulations (89 FR 58886, July 19, 2024)
• Federal Register: Required Minimum Distributions, proposed regulations on the 1959 birth year (89 FR 58644, July 19, 2024)

This calculator is for planning only and isn’t tax advice. Confirm your RMD with your account custodian or a tax professional.

Updated November 2026. Results are estimates for educational purposes and depend on the inputs you provide.