Calculate your 2026 RMD for a traditional IRA, 401k, or inherited IRA. Covers SECURE 2.0 rules and the 10-year inherited IRA rule.
Miss your required minimum distribution and the IRS takes 25% of the shortfall off the top -- before you ever see the money. That penalty applies the moment the deadline passes. Enter your account balance and birth year below to see exactly what you owe this year, and what happens if you skip it.
Roth 401k accounts are no longer subject to RMDs starting in 2024. If your Roth 401k was rolled over to a Roth IRA, no RMD applies to Roth IRAs either. This calculator is designed for traditional (pre-tax) accounts. To permanently eliminate future RMDs on a pre-tax account, a Roth conversion may be worth exploring.
| Year | Age | Proj. Balance | Factor | RMD | Cumulative RMD |
|---|
Projection assumes 5% annual account growth. Actual results will vary. This is a planning estimate, not a guarantee.
The 10-year rule output for inherited IRAs involves open IRS regulatory guidance (Proposed Regulations RIN 1545-BQ98) that FigureNerd is verifying before publishing results. We are taking the time to get this right because the stakes are high.
In the meantime: most non-spouse beneficiaries who inherited after January 1, 2020 must fully distribute the account by December 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the original owner's death.
Verification in ProgressRMD planning, inherited IRA strategy, and tax minimization require a fiduciary advisor who knows your full picture.
Connect with a fee-only financial advisor for RMD planning, inherited IRA strategy, and IRMAA management.
A required minimum distribution (RMD) is the minimum amount the IRS requires you to withdraw each year from a traditional IRA, 401k, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, or similar pre-tax retirement account once you reach your required beginning date. The goal, from the government's perspective, is straightforward: you deferred taxes on contributions and growth for decades. At some point, those deferred taxes come due. RMDs are how the IRS collects.
Miss the deadline and the penalty is a 25% excise tax on the shortfall. That number dropped from 50% under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, but 25% is still a significant hit on money you were going to withdraw anyway.
This is where a lot of people get tripped up. The start age has shifted three times in recent decades.
Your first RMD must be taken by April 1 of the year following the year you reach your required beginning age. Every subsequent RMD must be taken by December 31 of that same year. If you delay your first RMD to the April 1 deadline, you will have two distributions in the same year -- your delayed first-year distribution and your second-year distribution. That bunching can push you into a higher bracket and, depending on your income level, may trigger an IRMAA Medicare surcharge.
Starting in 2024, Roth 401k accounts are no longer subject to RMDs. Before 2024, Roth 401ks were one of the few Roth-type accounts that required annual distributions. SECURE 2.0 eliminated that requirement, aligning Roth 401k treatment with Roth IRA treatment.
If you have a Roth 401k and are uncertain whether RMDs apply, they do not -- for the 2024 tax year forward. Roth IRAs have never been subject to RMDs during the owner's lifetime. If you converted or rolled your Roth 401k into a Roth IRA, the Roth IRA rules apply: no RMDs required.
Under SECURE 2.0, the penalty for a missed or shortfall RMD is a 25% excise tax on the amount not distributed. That rate was 50% before SECURE 2.0. The IRS also introduced a correction window: if you take the missed distribution within the correction window (typically two years), the penalty may be reduced to 10%.
Importantly, correcting the missed RMD does not eliminate the distribution requirement. You still have to take the distribution. The correction window applies to the penalty rate only. Consult a tax professional if you have missed an RMD -- the correction procedures have specific timing requirements.
If you are age 70.5 or older and charitably inclined, a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) may be the most tax-efficient way to satisfy your RMD. Under IRC Section 408(d)(8), an IRA holder age 70.5 or older may direct up to the annual QCD limit directly from the IRA to a qualified charity. That distribution counts toward your RMD but is excluded from your taxable income.
The QCD does not show up as income on your return. This may matter more than it appears: taxable RMDs push up your adjusted gross income, which determines your Medicare IRMAA surcharge bracket, the taxable portion of your Social Security benefits, and your eligibility for various deductions and credits. A QCD keeps the distribution from touching any of those thresholds.
If you have multiple traditional IRAs, you calculate the RMD for each account separately, but you can satisfy the total from any single account (or combination). The aggregation rule applies to traditional IRAs, rollover IRAs, SEP IRAs, and SIMPLE IRAs.
401k accounts are different. If you have multiple former-employer 401k plans, each plan generally requires its own RMD. You cannot aggregate across 401k plans. If you still work for an employer at RMD age and have not yet retired, you may be able to delay RMDs on that employer's 401k -- consult the plan administrator.
The SECURE Act (2019) fundamentally changed inherited IRA rules for most beneficiaries who inherit on or after January 1, 2020. The old "stretch IRA" -- which allowed beneficiaries to spread distributions over their own lifetime -- was eliminated for most non-spouse beneficiaries. In its place: the 10-year rule.
Under the 10-year rule, most non-spouse beneficiaries must distribute the entire inherited account by December 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the original owner's death. There are exceptions for "eligible designated beneficiaries" (surviving spouses, disabled individuals, chronically ill individuals, minor children, and beneficiaries who are not more than 10 years younger than the deceased owner).
The question of whether annual distributions are required within the 10-year period (for accounts inherited after the owner's required beginning date) is subject to IRS proposed regulations that were still under finalization as of this writing. This calculator shows the inherited IRA inputs for planning reference but presents a "verification in progress" notice on the output until those regulations are finalized. Consult a tax professional on your specific inherited IRA situation.