Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) in 2026: Rules, Ages, and How to Pay Less Tax

Every dollar you saved in a traditional IRA or 401(k) came with a deal: the IRS let you skip the tax on the way in, on the understanding that it would collect on the way out. Required minimum distributions are how it collects. Starting at age 73, the government requires you to withdraw a minimum amount from those accounts every year — and pay ordinary income tax on it — whether you need the money or not.

The short answer: in 2026, RMDs begin at age 73 (or 75 if you were born in 1960 or later). The amount is your prior-year-end balance divided by an IRS life-expectancy factor, and missing one triggers a penalty of up to 25%. The real planning question is not whether you take RMDs — it is how to keep them from quietly pushing you into a higher tax bracket, raising your Medicare premiums, and taxing more of your Social Security.

What is a required minimum distribution (RMD)?

A required minimum distribution is the smallest amount you must withdraw each year from a tax-deferred retirement account once you reach RMD age. It applies to traditional IRAs, rollover IRAs, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, and most employer plans — 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) accounts. Each withdrawal is taxed as ordinary income in the year you take it.

Two account types are exempt for the original owner: Roth IRAs have never required RMDs during the owner’s lifetime, and Roth 401(k)s no longer require them either, as of 2024 under the SECURE 2.0 Act. That single difference is one of the strongest arguments for moving money to Roth before RMDs begin.

At what age do RMDs start in 2026?

Your RMD age depends on the year you were born:

You can delay your firstRMD until April 1 of the year after you reach RMD age — but it is usually a trap. Wait, and you must take two RMDs in the same calendar year (the delayed first one plus that year’s), stacking the income and the tax into a single return. Every RMD after the first is due by December 31.

How is an RMD calculated?

The formula is simple: take your account balance as of December 31 of the prior year and divide it by a life-expectancy factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. The older you are, the smaller the factor, so the required percentage rises each year.

If you own several IRAs, you add up the RMDs and can take the total from any one of them. 401(k) RMDs, by contrast, must be taken from each plan separately.

What happens if you miss an RMD?

Missing an RMD used to cost a brutal 50% of the shortfall. The SECURE 2.0 Act cut that to 25%, and to 10% if you correct the mistake within a two-year window and show reasonable cause. It is still one of the steepest penalties in the tax code, and it is entirely avoidable with a calendar reminder or automatic distributions from your custodian.

The hidden problem: RMDs can raise your tax bill three ways

For retirees with sizable tax-deferred balances, the RMD itself is rarely the issue. The damage is what the added income sets off:

• Higher tax brackets. An RMD lands on top of Social Security and any pension, often in years when your standard deduction and lower brackets are already used up.
• Medicare IRMAA surcharges. Cross an income threshold and your Medicare Part B and Part D premiums jump. IRMAA is a cliff — one dollar over a bracket bumps the entire tier — and it is based on your income from two years prior.
• More of your Social Security taxed. Higher income can make up to 85% of your Social Security benefit taxable.

This stacking is why RMDs deserve a plan years before they begin — not the April you turn 73.

How to reduce the tax on your RMDs

1. Convert to Roth in the low-income years first. The window between your last paycheck and age 73 is usually the lowest-tax stretch of your life — the same window behind the Retirement Red Zone. Moving money to Roth then shrinks the traditional balance your future RMDs are based on. Our Roth conversion guidecovers how to size each year’s conversion.
2. Give directly from your IRA with a QCD. From age 70½, a Qualified Charitable Distribution lets you send money straight from your IRA to a qualified charity. It counts toward your RMD but never appears as taxable income — up to an inflation-indexed limit of about $111,000 per person in 2026. For the charitably inclined, it is the most tax-efficient way to give.
3. Use the still-working exception. If you are still employed past 73, do not own more than 5% of the company, and your plan allows it, you can usually delay RMDs from that employer’s401(k) until you retire. It does not apply to IRAs or to former employers’ plans.
4. Coordinate with Social Security. When you claim changes how RMD income stacks on top of your benefit. Our Social Security claiming guide covers the timing decisions that move the needle.
5. Reinvest what you don’t need. An RMD must be withdrawn, not spent. If you don’t need the cash, you can pay the tax and move it into a taxable brokerage account — keeping it invested rather than letting it sit idle.

New for 2026: inherited IRAs and the 10-year rule

If you inherited an IRA from someone other than your spouse, the rules changed — and 2026 is when the strictest interpretation takes full effect. Most non-spouse beneficiaries must empty an inherited IRA within 10 years. Under the IRS’s finalized regulations, if the original owner had already reached their required beginning date, the beneficiary must also take an annual RMD in each of those 10 years, not simply empty the account by year ten.

Inherited Roth IRAs still must be emptied within 10 years, but with no annual RMD along the way. These rules are intricate and the penalties for getting them wrong are real. If you have inherited a retirement account, it is worth a conversation with an advisor or CPA before year-end.

Your RMD checklist

• Confirm your RMD age and your first required year.
• Put the December 31 deadline (or April 1 for a first RMD) on your calendar, or set up automatic distributions.
• Add up RMDs across all IRAs; take 401(k) RMDs from each plan separately.
• Ask whether a Roth conversion or a QCD lowers this year’s tax.
• Check whether the withdrawal will trip an IRMAA bracket two years out.

RMDs are predictable, which means they are plannable. The retirees who pay the least tax on them rarely do anything clever at 73 — they did the quiet work in their sixties, in the low-income years before the IRS’s clock started. For more than two decades, Panic Proof Retirement™ has helped Metro Detroit households in Bloomfield Hills, Troy, Auburn Hills, and beyond turn that window into lower lifetime taxes. If you want a year-by-year plan for your own accounts, that is what our retirement-income and tax planning process is built to do.

This article is educational information, not individualized tax, legal, or investment advice. Tax laws and IRS limits change and are indexed annually; the figures here reflect 2026 and are subject to change. RMD and inherited-account rules are complex — confirm your specific situation with a qualified advisor or CPA before acting.