Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Calculator

How the calculation works

Beginning with the current calendar year, you can use your RMD amount as follows: determine the balance in an eligible retirement plan on December 31 of the preceding calendar year, then divide that year-end balance by an appropriate distribution period (life expectancy) found in the Internal Revenue Service's Uniform Lifetime Table, which provides various factors based upon the investor's age during the calendar year. The age-based factors are listed from age 72 (distribution factor 27.4) through to age 120 or older (distribution factor 2).

Worked example: at age 75 (factor 24.6), a $320,000 traditional IRA with one brokerage will need about $13,008, while a $90,000 IRA at another brokerage will require about $3,659 more, making a combined IRA total of approximately $16,667 that can be taken from either account or split equally between both accounts. Additionally, the individual's $180,000 old 401(k) needs its own $7,317 amount that must be withdrawn from this 401(k). The grand total needed for all accounts is an estimated $23,984.

Which accounts have a required distribution

Not every retirement account forces a withdrawal, and the difference is worth knowing before you calculate anything. Traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s and governmental 457(b)s all require distributions once you reach the starting age.

Roth accounts do not require mandatory distributions. As the IRS puts it, withdrawals are generally not subject to required minimum distribution rules for designated Roth contributions made to a traditional individual retirement account, as well as those made into a designated Roth contribution within a qualified employer plan such as a 401(k) or 403(b), until after the death of the account owner. That is the single most common point of confusion in IRA distribution rules. And there's a twist worth knowing: although a beneficiary inherits a Roth account, they still have to follow distribution requirements, because unlike the original owner of the account, the beneficiary does.

Inherited IRAs have completely separate rules, and therefore this tool does not cover them. The Uniform Lifetime Table used here is based on the table for owners of retirement plans who are taking their own distributions. Most beneficiaries of an owner who died in 2019 or later will need to empty the inherited IRA within ten years, except for the spouse of the deceased owner and some other individuals who may qualify for an exception, so an inherited IRA needs a different calculation method and a different table.

Why IRAs and employer plans are tracked separately

Most people make the same mistake here: treating every retirement account as interchangeable. The IRS allows an individual who owns IRAs to combine their IRAs for purposes of calculating each separate IRA's RMD. After combining the RMDs, the combined amount may be withdrawn from one IRA or divided into multiple IRAs, whichever method provides the most convenience. In like manner, 403(b) contracts are treated similarly among themselves: each contract has its own RMD calculated individually, but there is nothing preventing the total of all the RMDs being withdrawn from one or more of the 403(b) contracts. What you cannot do is mix the totals across account types: the total of the 403(b) contracts cannot be used to satisfy the total of an IRA, and the reverse doesn't work either. A participant in a 401(k) plan or a governmental 457(b) plan does not have the ability to aggregate their plans at all; each plan has its own RMD that must be taken directly from that specific plan. If a participant mixes up these different types of plans, they could technically miss a required distribution even while having withdrawn a substantial amount from their accounts overall, which is exactly the kind of error this tool's two-total layout is built to prevent.

What happens if an RMD is missed

Not taking some or all of your RMD carries a penalty under IRS rules: 25% of the amount you were required to take but did not take by the deadline, which may be reduced to 10% if a correction is made within a defined correction window. The deadline is December 31 of the year the RMD applies to. However, the first RMD may be delayed to April 1 of the following year (taking it at this time will cause two RMDs to occur during the same year, which can push more taxable income into a higher tax bracket than would have occurred had they been taken separately across two years). This tool's per-account checkbox exists so a quick glance answers "have I actually taken this yet," the item most worth double checking just before the year closes out.