RMD calculator: your required minimum distribution for 2026

How the RMD calculator works

Your required minimum distribution (RMD) for a year is the account balance on December 31 of the previous year divided by the distribution period for the age you reach that year^[p590b]. Most owners use Table III, the Uniform Lifetime Table. The calculator:

1. works out your age in the RMD year (birth year subtracted from the year);
2. checks whether an RMD is due: your applicable age is 73 if you were born 1951–1959 and 75 if born in 1960 or later^[irc401]; proposed IRS regulations settle that people born in 1959 use 73^[fr2024];
3. divides the prior year-end balance by the factor (for example 26.5 at 73, 24.6 at 75);
4. projects the next ten years, growing what is left after each withdrawal at your rate.

Your first RMD is for the year you reach your applicable age, but you can delay it to April 1 of the next year; every later RMD is due by December 31^[rmdfaq]. Delaying the first one means two taxable distributions in the same year.

Worked examples from IRS Publication 590-B

The calculator reproduces the IRS's own examples^[p590b]:

• Age 75 in 2026, $100,000 on December 31, 2025. The Table III factor at 75 is 24.6, so the 2026 RMD is $100,000 ÷ 24.6 = $4,065.
• Turned 73 in 2025 with $38,400. The 2025 RMD is $38,400 ÷ 26.5 = $1,449.06 (the publication rounds to $1,450). He took $3,600; the extra $2,150 does not count toward 2026. With $34,800 at the end of 2025 and the age-73 factor of 26.5, the 2026 RMD is $1,313.

Over a longer horizon, a $500,000 IRA for someone born in 1953 that earns 5% a year pays out $18,868 in the first year and $27,923 at 82: the percentage rises every year (3.8% at 73, 6.3% at 85), so RMDs often grow even as the balance shrinks. The full factor list is on the RMD table page.

Inherited IRA RMDs and the 10-year rule

Most non-spouse beneficiaries of an owner who died after 2019 must empty the inherited IRA by the end of the 10th year after the death. If the owner had already reached the required beginning date, annual RMDs are also due in years 1–9, figured with the Single Life Expectancy Table^[p590b]. Eligible designated beneficiaries (a surviving spouse, the owner's minor child, a disabled or chronically ill person, or someone not more than 10 years younger) can stretch payments over their own life expectancy.

Publication 590-B gives two checks for this table: an eligible designated beneficiary who is 57 in the first distribution year uses 29.8; a beneficiary who was 55 in 2022 uses 31.6 − 4 = 27.6 in 2026.

Common mistakes

• Using today's balance. The RMD uses the balance on December 31 of the previous year, not the current value.
• Combining different account types. You can total the RMDs for all your traditional IRAs and take them from any one IRA; 403(b) RMDs can be combined among 403(b)s; each 401(k) must pay its own RMD.
• Taking RMDs from a Roth IRA. Owners of Roth IRAs (and, from 2024, Roth 401(k) accounts) have no lifetime RMDs.
• Missing the deadline. A shortfall carries a 25% excise tax, cut to 10% if you take the missed amount and file Form 5329 within the correction window^[p590b].
• Forgetting that RMDs raise income. A large RMD can push you into a higher Medicare bracket two years later; see IRMAA brackets. Giving to charity straight from the IRA with a qualified charitable distribution counts toward the RMD without adding to income.