How to calculate your RMD, step by step

Key points

• Your RMD for a year is the account balance on December 31 of the year before, divided by the IRS factor for the age you reach this year.
• Most owners take the factor from the Uniform Lifetime Table. At 73 it is 26.5. If your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, the Joint and Last Survivor Table applies instead. Through age 115 it gives a larger factor, so a smaller RMD.
• Calculate each account separately. The IRA totals can come from any of your IRAs, but each 401(k) must pay its own.
• If a rollover was in transit on December 31, add it to the receiving IRA’s balance.

A required minimum distribution (RMD) is the least you must withdraw each year from a traditional IRA or a workplace plan such as a 401(k) once you reach your RMD age. The math is one division. Most mistakes come from using the wrong balance, the wrong age or the wrong table.

This guide covers your own accounts and federal rules, not state income tax. For the wider rules on RMDs, see our complete guide to RMDs. Inherited accounts use a different method, explained in our inherited IRA RMD guide.

We checked every rule and figure against the regulations and IRS publications on October 27, 2026, and ran every example through our own RMD calculator. The sources are listed at the end.

How do you calculate an RMD?

The regulation defines the RMD as “the quotient obtained by dividing the account balance… by the applicable denominator”. In plain terms:

RMD = balance on December 31 of last year ÷ factor for your age this year

Four steps get you there:

1. Find the right balance for each account.
2. Find the age you reach this year.
3. Pick the right IRS table and read off the factor.
4. Divide, then repeat for each account and check where each RMD may come from.

Roth IRAs skip all of this. The IRS: “There are no RMD requirements for a Roth IRA or designated Roth accounts while the owner is alive.” See our Roth IRA RMD guide.

Step 1: which account balance to use

For an IRA, use the balance on December 31 of the previous year. For a 2026 RMD, that is the value on December 31, 2025. The regulation adds: “no adjustments are made for contributions or distributions after that date”, except for money in transit between accounts on December 31, below.

Your custodian reports that value to you. It is box 5 of Form 5498, “FMV of Account”, the fair market value on December 31. Custodians must value every IRA asset each year, including assets “not having a readily determinable market value”. That covers an IRA holding precious metals or other hard-to-price assets.

The one adjustment: money in transit. If money left one account in December as a rollover and arrived in the receiving IRA in January, it was in no account on December 31. Publication 590-B: “increase the account balance of the receiving IRA by the rollover amount valued as of the date of receipt.” A direct transfer between IRAs that is in transit on December 31 is adjusted the same way. Example 6 below shows the effect.

For a 401(k) or other workplace plan, the plan uses its own valuation date. The balance is the one “as of the last valuation date in the calendar year preceding” the RMD year. It is then increased by contributions allocated after that date and reduced by distributions made after it, in the same year. In practice the plan does this for you. The IRS says: “Your plan sponsor/administrator should calculate the RMD for you.”

Roth money inside a 401(k) is left out. While you are alive, the plan’s balance “does not include amounts held in a designated Roth account”. Example 5 shows it.

Step 2: which age to use

Use the age you reach on your birthday in the RMD year. Publication 590-B gives the factor “next to your age as of your birthday in 2026”. You use that age for the whole year, even if your birthday is on December 31.

Your first RMD is for the year you reach your RMD age:

• Born 1951 to 1958: 73. “You reach age 73 on your 73rd birthday.”
• Born 1960 or later: 75.
• Born 1959: the statute reads both ways. The final regulations leave that paragraph “Reserved”, and proposed regulations from July 2024 say 73.

Publication 590-B’s own example shows the December rule: “Justin became 73 on December 15, 2025”, and his 2025 RMD uses the age-73 factor. Our RMD age guide covers the birth-year rules in full.

Step 3: which table, and how to find your factor

Most owners use the Uniform Lifetime Table. It applies if you are unmarried, if your spouse is not your sole beneficiary, or if your spouse is not more than 10 years younger than you. The factors for the ages most readers need:

Age this year	Factor	Age this year	Factor
73	26.5	77	22.9
74	25.5	78	22.0
75	24.6	79	21.1
76	23.7	80	20.2

Our RMD table page prints every factor from 72 to 120 and over.

If your spouse is your sole beneficiary for the whole year and more than 10 years younger, use the Joint and Last Survivor Table instead. You need both ages: yours and your spouse’s on your birthdays this year. Marital status is set on January 1, so a divorce or death later in the year does not change that year’s table.

Look the factor up fresh each year. As an owner, you do not subtract 1 from last year’s factor.

Step 4: divide, then repeat for each account

Divide each account’s balance by the factor. Publication 590-B’s example: $100,000 at age 75 is “$4,065 ($100,000 ÷ 24.6)”. The IRS rounds to the dollar there. The exact figure is $4,065.04, and we show cents throughout.

Do this for every account. Where the money may then come from depends on the account type:

• Traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs. Each IRA’s RMD “must be calculated separately”, but the total “may be distributed from any one or more of the IRAs”.
• 403(b) accounts. The same, among your 403(b)s only.
• 401(k)s and other workplace plans. In the IRS’s words, “you must calculate and satisfy your RMDs separately for each plan and withdraw that amount from that plan.”
• No crossing between types. IRA withdrawals do not count toward a 403(b) RMD, and the reverse is also true.
• Inherited IRAs combine only with IRAs inherited from the same person, never with your own.

Our guide to RMDs across several IRAs and 401(k)s covers the combinations.

RMD calculation examples

Every example is a 2026 RMD, so the balance is the one on December 31, 2025. Each link opens our calculator with the inputs filled in.

Example 1: your first RMD

You were born in 1953, so you turn 73 in 2026. Your IRA held $360,000 on December 31, 2025.

$360,000 ÷ 26.5 = $13,584.91

Run these numbers. Because this is your first RMD, the deadline is April 1, 2027. Every later RMD is due by December 31.

Example 2: a later year

You were born in 1948, so you turn 78 in 2026. Your IRA held $612,500 on December 31, 2025.

$612,500 ÷ 22.0 = $27,840.91

Run these numbers. Next year you turn 79, so you will divide your December 31, 2026, balance by 21.1.

Example 3: spouse more than 10 years younger

You were born in 1950 and turn 76 in 2026. Your spouse, born in 1963, turns 63 and is the sole beneficiary of your IRA. The gap is 13 years. The IRA held $500,000 on December 31, 2025.

• Joint and Last Survivor Table, ages 76 and 63: $500,000 ÷ 25.9 = $19,305.02
• Uniform Lifetime Table, age 76: $500,000 ÷ 23.7 = $21,097.05

The joint table is the one that applies here, and it lowers the RMD by $1,792.03. Run these numbers with the spouse filled in.

IRS instructions allow a custodian’s RMD statement to assume your spouse is not more than 10 years younger. If this example fits you, the statement can show the higher figure.

Example 4: several IRAs

You were born in 1949 and turn 77 in 2026. The factor is 22.9. On December 31, 2025, you held:

Account	Balance	RMD
Traditional IRA	$210,000	$9,170.31
Rollover IRA	$62,000	$2,707.42
SEP IRA	$41,500	$1,812.23
Total	$313,500	$13,689.96

You can take the $13,689.96 from any one of the three IRAs or split it among them. Run the combined balance. Here $313,500 ÷ 22.9 gives the same $13,689.96. Because each RMD is rounded to the cent, the sum of separate RMDs can differ from the combined figure by a cent in other cases.

Example 5: a 401(k)

You were born in 1951 and turn 75 in 2026. You retired in 2024, so the still-working exception does not apply. Your 401(k) was worth $350,000 at its last 2025 valuation on December 31, including $40,000 in its Roth account.

• Balance for the RMD: $350,000 minus $40,000 = $310,000
• $310,000 ÷ 24.6 = $12,601.63

Counting the Roth money would give $14,227.64, more than the law requires. This RMD must come out of the 401(k) itself. A withdrawal from an IRA does not count toward it. Run these numbers.

If you still work for the employer that sponsors the plan, you may be able to wait. Our 401(k) RMD guide covers the exception and who it excludes.

Example 6: a rollover in transit on December 31

You were born in 1952 and turn 74 in 2026. You had already taken the 401(k)’s 2025 RMD. On December 18, 2025, $60,000 left your old 401(k) as a rollover. It reached your IRA on January 9, 2026. The IRA statement for December 31, 2025, shows $240,000.

• Adjusted balance: $240,000 + $60,000 = $300,000
• $300,000 ÷ 25.5 = $11,764.71

Using the statement alone gives $9,411.76, which is $2,352.95 short. The $60,000 was in no account on December 31, so no year-end statement includes it. Run the adjusted balance.

What changes your RMD the next year

Each year is a new calculation. You take the new December 31 balance and the factor for your new age.

Taking extra this year does not lower next year’s RMD. The regulation: “no credit towards a required minimum distribution will be given in subsequent calendar years for the excess distribution.” One timing point is not an exception: money taken in the year you reach your RMD age counts toward that year’s RMD, your first, even though its deadline is April 1 of the next year.

Delaying the first RMD does not shrink the second. For an IRA, a withdrawal made after December 31 does not reduce that December 31 balance. Go back to Example 1. Say you take the $13,584.91 in March 2027, and the IRA was worth $372,000 on December 31, 2026. Your 2027 RMD is $372,000 ÷ 25.5 = $14,588.24, and both RMDs are 2027 income: $28,173.15. Run the 2027 figure. Our RMD deadline guide covers the timing.

How to check your custodian’s RMD figure

• IRA custodians must tell you by January 31. If an RMD is required for the year, the custodian must send a statement by January 31. It gives the deadline and either the amount or an offer to calculate it.
• The statement may assume the wrong table. It “may be calculated assuming the sole beneficiary of the IRA is not a spouse more than 10 years younger than the participant.”
• It covers one IRA at a time. The statement gives the RMD for that IRA. With IRAs at several custodians, the total is yours to add up.
• Plans work out their own. For a 401(k), the IRS expects the plan to calculate the RMD (see Step 1).

Running your own numbers in the RMD calculator gives a figure to compare with the statement. Missing part of an RMD costs a 25% excise tax on the shortfall, or 10% if corrected in time. Our RMD penalty guide covers the fix.

About this guide

Written by the Diversify Guy editorial desk. Diversify Guy is a pen name. It is the byline of our editorial team, not a single individual. We do not publish personal trading records or claim to be your adviser. We tell you where every figure came from so you can check it yourself. How we work and how we get paid.

This guide explains federal rules. It is not personalized tax or investment advice. Diversify Guy earns affiliate commissions and advertising fees from companies featured elsewhere on the site. This page carries no ads and no affiliate links.

Sources and check dates

All sources were fetched and checked on October 27, 2026.

• 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-5 (RMD formula, plan account balance, designated Roth accounts, the spouse rule, no credit for excess), eCFR, title 26 up to date as of October 23, 2026: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.401(a)(9)-5
• 26 CFR 1.408-8 (IRA balance on December 31, rollovers in transit, IRA aggregation): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.408-8
• 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-7 (rollovers between plans): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.401(a)(9)-7
• 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-9 (Uniform Lifetime Table and Joint and Last Survivor Table): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.401(a)(9)-9
• 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-2 (applicable age by date of birth): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.401(a)(9)-2
• Internal Revenue Code section 401(a)(9)(C)(v), U.S. Code 2024 edition: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title26/html/USCODE-2024-title26-subtitleA-chap1-subchapD-partI-subpartA-sec401.htm
• Proposed RMD regulations, REG-103529-23, Federal Register, July 19, 2024: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/07/19/2024-14543/required-minimum-distributions
• IRS Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), for use in preparing 2025 returns: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b and https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590b.pdf
• IRS, RMD comparison chart (IRAs vs. defined contribution plans): https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/rmd-comparison-chart-iras-vs-defined-contribution-plans
• IRS, Retirement topics: Required minimum distributions (RMDs): https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-required-minimum-distributions-rmds
• 2026 Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099r.pdf