Required Minimum Distribution Statistics (2026)

A required minimum distribution is the smallest amount the IRS forces you to withdraw each year from most tax-deferred retirement accounts, so the deferred taxes eventually get paid. It applies to traditional IRAs and workplace plans once you reach the start age, currently 73 (see the table below).

The mechanics are simple: divide the prior December 31 balance by an IRS life-expectancy factor. Miss the deadline and the penalty is a 25% excise tax on the shortfall, sharply reduced from the 50% rate that applied before the SECURE 2.0 Act took effect.

The start age has moved twice in recent years. The original threshold was 70.5, raised to 72 by the SECURE Act of 2019 and to 73 by SECURE 2.0 for anyone turning 72 after 2022. It rises again to 75 in 2033 (see the table below).

The cleanest way to read it: people born from 1951 through 1959 start at 73, and anyone born in 1960 or later starts at 75. Roth IRAs are exempt entirely during the owner's lifetime, so this timing only matters for pre-tax balances.

The first RMD is modest and grows every year. At age 73 the required amount is about 3.8% of the prior year-end balance, rising to roughly 5.0% at 80, 6.3% at 85, and 8.2% at 90 (see the chart below). By age 100 the rate reaches about 15.6%.

Because the percentage climbs as the divisor falls, RMDs are designed to draw the account down over your remaining life expectancy. On a $500,000 IRA, the first-year RMD is about $18,900; the same balance at age 90 would require about $41,000.

Most account owners use the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table (Table III). It assigns a distribution period, or divisor, to each age: 26.5 at 73, 20.2 at 80, 16.0 at 85, and 12.2 at 90 (see the chart and table below). Dividing your balance by that number gives the year's RMD.

The divisor shrinks with age, which is what pushes the withdrawal percentage up over time. A separate Joint and Last Survivor table applies when your sole beneficiary is a spouse more than 10 years younger, producing smaller required withdrawals.

RMDs reach nearly every pre-tax retirement vehicle: traditional IRAs, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, and employer plans including 401(k), 403(b), and governmental 457(b) accounts (see the table below). Inherited accounts have their own separate rules.

The big exceptions are Roth accounts. Roth IRAs never require distributions while the owner is alive, and since 2024 SECURE 2.0 extended that exemption to Roth 401(k) and Roth 403(b) balances, removing a quirk that used to force distributions from workplace Roth money.

The Roth exemption is increasingly central to retirement tax planning. Because Roth IRAs carry no lifetime RMD, retirees can leave the money invested and growing tax-free, using it to manage which years push them into higher brackets or Medicare surcharge tiers.

That flexibility helps explain the rise of Roth conversions in the years before age 73: moving pre-tax dollars to Roth shrinks the future RMD base. The trade-off is paying tax now, so conversions tend to make sense in lower-income gap years before RMDs begin.

Every RMD after the first is due by December 31. The first one gets a grace period: you can wait until April 1 of the year after you turn 73. The catch is that the second RMD is still due that same December 31.

Delaying therefore stacks two taxable distributions into one calendar year, often bumping you into a higher bracket. That is why advisers usually recommend taking the first RMD in the year you turn 73 rather than deferring into the April 1 window.

Missing an RMD used to be one of the harshest penalties in the tax code: a 50% excise tax on whatever you failed to withdraw. SECURE 2.0 cut that to 25%, and to just 10% if you take the missed amount and file a correction within two years.

The penalty applies only to the shortfall, not the whole account, and the IRS can waive it for reasonable cause via Form 5329. Still, the safest approach for most retirees is automating the withdrawal so the deadline is never missed.

Research shows RMDs act as the default withdrawal strategy. In a J.P. Morgan Asset Management and EBRI study tracking about 31,000 people from 2013 to 2018, roughly 80% took no withdrawals before RMD age, and about 84% of those at RMD age withdrew no more than the minimum (see the chart and table below).

That anchoring cuts both ways. It stops many retirees from overspending, but J.P. Morgan called the RMD-only approach inefficient because it can leave people underspending early in retirement. Vanguard similarly found about 70% of in-plan retirees took no withdrawal three years out.

Not everyone sticks to the floor. The EBRI IRA Database (a 2017 vintage, so somewhat dated) found that about one-quarter of traditional-IRA owners age 71 or older withdrew more than their RMD, and roughly 25.6% of traditional-IRA owners took any withdrawal in the year.

Overall, just over 21% of all IRA owners took a distribution that year, a figure driven almost entirely by the RMD-age group. Younger owners rarely touch the accounts, which is exactly what the tax-deferral incentive is designed to encourage.

RMDs govern an enormous pool of savings. IRAs held about $19.2 trillion at the end of 2025, part of a record $49.1 trillion US retirement market, and roughly $7.4 trillion of IRA money sits in mutual funds (see the table below).

Individual balances vary widely. IRS Statistics of Income data (tax year 2023, via aggregator) put the average traditional IRA at about $225,413, with roughly $653 billion rolled in from employer plans that year. Traditional IRAs are owned by about 33% of US households.

One popular way to satisfy an RMD tax-efficiently is a qualified charitable distribution (QCD). From age 70.5, you can send IRA money directly to charity, and it counts toward your RMD while staying out of your taxable income.

The cap is indexed for inflation: it was $108,000 per person in 2025 and rises to about $111,000 in 2026 (roughly $222,000 for a married couple who both qualify). Because the gift never appears in adjusted gross income, a QCD can also reduce Medicare surcharges and the taxation of Social Security.

RMDs do not end at death. Since the SECURE Act, most non-spouse beneficiaries who inherit an IRA must empty it within 10 years, replacing the old stretch-IRA rules that let heirs spread withdrawals over their own lifetimes.

Exceptions to the 10-year rule include surviving spouses, minor children of the owner, disabled or chronically ill beneficiaries, and heirs within 10 years of the owner's age. When the original owner had already begun RMDs, many heirs must also take annual distributions during the 10-year window.

RMDs are predictable, so they reward planning. Knowing that a pre-tax balance will force taxable withdrawals starting at 73 lets you smooth the tax hit in advance: partial Roth conversions in low-income years, or timing large deductions, can shrink the eventual bill.

Once RMDs begin, the required amount does not have to be spent. You can reinvest it in a taxable brokerage account, gift it via a QCD, or use it as income. The rule dictates what leaves the tax-deferred account, not what you do with the money afterward.