There are two questions that sound like one. When do I have to start taking money out? and what do I have to do with the account I inherited? They have different answers, different deadlines and different penalties, and the second one has been rewritten more recently than most people realise.
Your own accounts: age 73
The IRS puts it directly: you generally must start taking withdrawals from your traditional IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, and retirement plan accounts when you reach age 73.
That covers traditional IRAs and employer plans — 401(k), 403(b), 457(b) — along with SEP and SIMPLE IRAs.
It does not cover Roth. The RMD rules do not apply to Roth IRAs or designated Roth accounts while the owner is alive. That exclusion is one of the genuine structural advantages of a Roth and it is worth weighing when deciding where to hold retirement money, quite apart from the tax treatment of the withdrawals themselves.
The age is not the same for everyone. Under the current rules the applicable age is 73 for those attaining 72 after 31 December 2022 and 73 before 1 January 2033, moving to 75 for a later cohort. Which side of that you fall on depends on your birth year, and it is worth establishing rather than assuming.
The trap in your very first one
The first RMD has a deferral option that looks helpful and frequently is not.
You may delay the first withdrawal to 1 April of the year after the year you reach the triggering age. But the second RMD is still due by 31 December of that same year.
So deferring stacks two RMDs into one tax year. For some households that is harmless. For anyone near a threshold it is the opposite of harmless — two years of distributions in a single year's income can push modified AGI over an IRMAA bracket, and those brackets are cliffs rather than slopes. A choice that looks like deferring tax can cost two years of higher Medicare premiums.
Decide it deliberately, with the whole year's income in front of you.
How the number is worked out
Simpler than most people expect. For each account, the IRS calculates it by dividing the prior December 31 balance of that IRA or retirement plan account by a life expectancy factor that the IRS publishes in Tables.
Two consequences follow.
It is per account. The calculation is done for each one. Whether you may then take the total from a single account depends on the account type, and the rules differ between IRAs and employer plans — a point worth confirming with your provider rather than assuming.
It moves every year. Both inputs change: the balance on the last day of the prior year, and the factor. A good year in the markets raises next year's required withdrawal.
Missing one is expensive, and less expensive than it used to be
The IRS states that if an account owner fails to withdraw the full amount by the due date, the amount not withdrawn may be subject to an excise tax of 25%, 10% if the RMD is timely corrected within two years.
Two things are worth noticing in that sentence.
The tax applies to the amount not withdrawn, not to the account. Miss $4,000 of a required withdrawal and the exposure is on the $4,000.
And the correction window is real. Finding the mistake and fixing it inside two years cuts the rate substantially. If you discover a missed RMD, the useful response is to act quickly and take advice, not to hope it goes unnoticed.
The inherited account is a different regime
Here is where the two questions separate completely.
For beneficiaries subject to the ten-year rule, all distributions must be made by the end of the 10th year after death, except for distributions to certain eligible designated beneficiaries, who are treated differently.
Three things to take from that.
The clock is ten years, not a lifetime. The older approach of stretching an inherited account across a beneficiary's own life expectancy is not available to most beneficiaries now.
Which category you are in decides everything. "Eligible designated beneficiary" is a defined term covering particular relationships and circumstances, and being in or out of it changes the whole schedule. This is the first thing to establish, before any planning.
The detailed regulations apply from 2025. The final regulations under the relevant Code section apply for distribution calendar years beginning on or after 1 January 2025 — which is recent enough that guidance written before then may describe a different position.
Because the whole balance must come out inside ten years, the planning question is not whether to take it but when. Ten roughly equal withdrawals may cost far less tax than nine small ones and a very large tenth — and the answer depends on your own income across those years, not on the account.
Where this meets the rest of your plan
RMDs are taxable income in the year taken, which means they interact with everything else that is income-tested.
They lift modified AGI, and therefore IRMAA. They can affect how much of your Social Security is taxable — the figures for the current year are in the COLA and earnings guide. And they sit alongside whatever you are still contributing, for which the current limits are the reference.
If you are 65 or over, the separate $6,000 senior deduction may reduce the tax on that income — though, as that guide explains, probably not the AGI figure Medicare looks at.
What to actually check
- Your applicable age — 73 or 75, depending on birth year.
- Which of your accounts are in scope. Roth IRAs are not, during your lifetime.
- Whether to defer the first one, knowing it doubles up the following year.
- The 31 December balance of each account, which sets next year's figure.
- For an inherited account: which beneficiary category applies. Everything else follows from that.
What is set out above summarises IRS guidance on required minimum distributions, as background for readers in the United States rather than as tax, investment or financial advice. The rules differ by account type, by birth year and by beneficiary category, and they have been amended repeatedly. Check your own position against the IRS guidance, and with a qualified tax professional, before acting.
Sources
- IRS — Retirement plan and IRA required minimum distributions FAQs (opens in a new tab)
- IRS — Retirement topics: required minimum distributions (opens in a new tab)
- IRS — Publication 590-B, distributions from individual retirement arrangements (opens in a new tab)
- IRS — Retirement topics: beneficiary (opens in a new tab)
- Federal Register — Required minimum distributions, final regulations (opens in a new tab)
This article is general information for a United States audience and reflects required minimum distribution rules published by the IRS at the date of review. It is not tax, investment or financial advice. Applicable ages, account types, beneficiary categories and penalties depend on individual circumstances, and the rules have been amended repeatedly in recent years. Confirm the current position on IRS.gov and with a qualified tax professional before relying on any of this. Last reviewed 17 September 2026.
