Published October 5, 2026. Figures reflect 2026 IRS rules and the SECURE 2.0 Act. Educational information only — not tax advice. Confirm your distribution with your custodian or a qualified tax professional.
Most year-end retirement deadlines are about adding money before it is too late. The Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) is the opposite: it is about taking money out on time, and it is the only deadline on the calendar where the penalty is large, automatic, and entirely avoidable.
If you turned 73 in 2026, this is the year it starts. Here is the deadline, the math, the one extension that exists, and the traps that cost people the most.
The Deadline: December 31 (With One Exception)
For every year after your first, the RMD must be withdrawn by December 31. There is no grace period, no extension to the filing deadline, and no fixing it after the fact.
The only exception is your first RMD year. For that first distribution, the law gives you an alternative deadline: April 1 of the following year. So if you turned 73 in 2026, you may take your first RMD by April 1, 2027 instead of December 31, 2026.
But that exception is a trap if you use it carelessly. If you delay the first RMD to early 2027, you still owe your 2027 RMD by December 31, 2027 — which means two taxable RMDs land in the same tax year. For most people who have other income, stacking two distributions into one year pushes income into a higher bracket. The April 1 delay is useful when you want to keep 2026 income low (for example, to stay under an IRMAA or bracket threshold) — not as a permanent habit.
Rule of thumb: The default is December 31. Use the April 1 first-year window only when you have run the two-year tax picture and the delay wins.
Who Has to Take One
Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, the RMD age is 73 for anyone who reaches that age through 2032 (it rises to 75 in 2033). RMDs apply to:
- Traditional IRAs — including SEP and SIMPLE IRAs.
- 401(k), 403(b), and most 457(b) plans — though an active employee who is not a 5% owner can often defer the plan RMD until they retire.
- Inherited IRAs — the old "stretch" is gone for most non-spouse beneficiaries; the 10-year rule usually applies instead.
They do not apply to your Roth IRA while you are alive. Roth IRAs have no lifetime RMD, which is a large part of why they are the last account you should spend and the first you should convert toward.
How the RMD Is Calculated
The math is a single division:
RMD = prior-year December 31 balance ÷ your life-expectancy factor
Two details do all the work:
- The balance is the prior year's December 31 value — for a 2026 RMD, the value on December 31, 2025. Market gains or losses in 2026 do not change the 2026 RMD amount.
- The factor comes from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table — age 73 is 26.5, age 74 is 25.5, age 75 is 24.6, and it declines each year (so the required percentage rises as you age).
A worked example: a $600,000 traditional IRA balance on December 31, 2025, for someone turning 73 in 2026.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Prior-year (12/31/2025) balance | $600,000 |
| Uniform Lifetime Table factor at 73 | 26.5 |
| 2026 RMD | $22,641 |
That $22,641 is ordinary income. It is not optional, and it is not reduced by the fact that you do not "need" the money.
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Calculate My RMD →The Penalty: 25%, Cut to 10% Only If You Fix It Fast
Miss an RMD and the IRS charges an excise tax of 25% of the amount you should have taken. Under SECURE 2.0, that drops to 10% if you withdraw the shortfall and file Form 5329 during the correction window. Even at the reduced rate, a missed $22,641 RMD means roughly $2,264 in pure penalty — money that bought you nothing.
The fix is operational, not clever. Do not wait until the last week of December, when custodians are slow and phone lines are long. Automate the distribution if your custodian supports it, and confirm the trade settled before the deadline.
Four Rules That Resolve Most RMD Confusion
1. Aggregation works for IRAs, not for 401(k)s. You can take the total RMD from any combination of your traditional IRAs — you do not have to touch each account. But each 401(k) or 403(b) plan must distribute its own RMD separately. You cannot satisfy a 401(k) RMD from your IRA.
2. A Roth conversion does not satisfy an RMD. This is the most expensive misbelief on the list. An RMD must be distributed — moved out of the account. A Roth conversion, by contrast, moves money into a Roth IRA. If you try to convert the amount you were required to distribute, it does not count as the RMD, and you have also created a taxable conversion. The clean sequence is: take the RMD first, then convert the rest. See Roth Conversion Before December 31, 2026 for how to size the conversion around this rule.
3. Qualified Charitable Distributions can satisfy the RMD — and reduce the tax. Once you are 70½ or older, a QCD of up to $108,000 (2026 limit) per year, sent directly from the IRA to a qualified charity, counts toward your RMD. Because the money never appears in your adjusted gross income, a QCD can keep you under the IRMAA and Social Security taxability thresholds that a cash RMD would push you over. For charitably inclined retirees, this is often the single best year-end move.
4. An RMD is a floor, not a plan. The IRS tells you the minimum. It says nothing about whether distributing more, or converting more, is smarter given your bracket. Treating the RMD as the withdrawal plan is how people end up with large, forced, fully taxable income at 80.
What an RMD Does to the Rest of Your Year-End Decisions
An RMD is blunt income: it lands in your AGI and raises the cost of every other December decision.
- It crowds out bracket space you might have wanted for a Roth conversion — which is exactly why you take the RMD first and then measure the room left.
- It can push you over an IRMAA threshold, and Medicare uses a two-year lookback, so this year's RMD affects your premium two years from now.
- It can make more of your Social Security taxable, via the provisional-income formula, raising your effective marginal rate above the headline bracket.
Run the RMD, the conversion, the IRMAA cliff, and the Social Security interaction together. Optimizing them one at a time is how the last dollar ends up taxed at a rate you never intended.
A 5-Step Year-End RMD Checklist
- Confirm your RMD age and year (73 for 2026; 75 starting in 2033).
- Pull the prior-year December 31 balance for every traditional IRA and plan.
- Apply the Uniform Lifetime Table factor (26.5 at 73) or use the IRS worksheet.
- Decide how to satisfy it — cash distribution, a QCD, or a mix — and account for aggregation rules.
- Execute well before December 31, and confirm the transaction settled.
Write down the reasoning. The factor, the balance, and the fixed table make the RMD fully predictable — there is no reason for the penalty to happen.
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Your Next Step
- Today: Confirm whether 2026 is your first RMD year.
- This week: Pull your December 31, 2025 balances and the age-73 factor (26.5).
- Before deciding: Model the RMD, the conversion room, and the IRMAA cliff together.
- Before mid-December: Schedule the distribution in the custodian's portal.
- December 31: The distribution window closes. The penalty does not care why you were late.
⚠️ Educational information only. This article is not tax, legal, or financial advice. Figures reflect 2026 IRS data and can change; verify against IRS.gov. RMD outcomes depend on your full return — consult a qualified tax professional before acting.