Tax Planning

When do RMDs start and how do they work now?

Required withdrawals start at 73 for most people, and the arithmetic takes about a minute to learn. The part that changes your outcome is what you do with the years before the first one.

October 23, 2026 13 min read David Talley, CFP®, EA

For most people retiring today, required minimum distributions start at 73. The first one is due by April 1 of the year after you turn 73. The amount is that account's prior December 31 balance, divided by a life expectancy factor the IRS publishes (IRS). That's the arithmetic, and it's the smaller half of the question.

Two people ask this question

One has a withdrawal due this year. Or just found out an old one was missed. That reader wants the start age, the aggregation rule, the first-year timing choice and the correction process. Those are the next four sections.

The other is 63, retired or close to it, and 73 is a decade off. For that reader the arithmetic barely matters. The years in between are the whole thing. That's the second half of this page.

Start with your own age, because it moved

The start age has moved twice in recent years. It was 70 and a half. Then 72. It's 73 for the people reaching it now (IRS Publication 590-B). For a younger group it becomes 75. The IRS calls it your applicable age, "which is either age 73 or age 75, depending on the individual's date of birth" (IRS Notice 2023-54).

So an article that says 70 and a half isn't lying to you. It was accurate the day somebody published it. It's just old. Check your birth year against the current rule. Don't go on the number you remember hearing.

What the withdrawal actually does to you

Money has to come out of a tax-deferred account whether you need it or not, and it counts as income. You take it out of your right pocket, pay the tax on it, and put what's left in your left pocket. Nothing about your life changed except the tax bill.

That's the part people don't picture in advance. This is the deferral ending. You took a deduction on the way in. The account grew without being taxed along the way. This is the year the postponed tax comes due.

Which accounts can cover for which

Every account gets its own calculation. Prior December 31 balance over a life expectancy factor. What differs is whether the accounts can cover for each other.

IRA owners "must calculate the RMD separately for each IRA," and then "can withdraw the total amount from one or more" of them. Workplace accounts are stricter. Distributions "required from other types of retirement plans, such as 401(k) and 457(b) plans, must be taken separately from each of those plan accounts" (IRS).

So three IRAs means adding three numbers and taking the total from whichever one you like. Two old workplace plans is different. Each of them pays its own. The account that gets missed is almost always an old plan somebody forgot they still had.

The first year has a timing choice inside it

You're allowed to push that first withdrawal to April 1 of the year after you turn 73. That sounds like a favor. Your second one is still due by December 31 of that same year (IRS). So delaying the first puts two withdrawals on one tax return.

Two years of income on one return can move you into a higher bracket. It can also raise how much of your Social Security gets counted, because that turns on your other income for the year (IRS Topic 423). And it can reach your Medicare premiums two years out. For drug coverage, the figure Medicare uses is the income "reported on your IRS tax return from 2 years ago" (Medicare).

Sometimes the stack is still the better answer. Say you retire mid-year at 73. This year's income is already high and next year's will be low. Then taking both in the low year can come out ahead. It's a question with your own numbers in it. Either way, run the two years side by side before April.

If one was missed

The amount not withdrawn may be subject to an excise tax of 25 percent. It drops to 10 percent if the shortfall is corrected within two years. There's also a waiver. It can be granted if you establish that the shortfall came from reasonable error and that reasonable steps are being taken to fix it, and you claim it by filing Form 5329 with a letter of explanation (IRS).

I say that mostly so you know the correction path exists. People find a missed withdrawal and assume the worst. There's a defined process, and it's usually workable once you deal with it.

The years before 73 are where the decisions live

Here's the part I'd actually want you thinking about, and it has almost nothing to do with anything above.

Between the day the paycheck stops and the day required withdrawals begin, there's often a stretch of years where your taxable income is the lowest it will ever be again. No wages. Maybe Social Security hasn't started yet. Nothing forcing money out of the retirement accounts.

The way I put it on video:

That window is where the playbook gets thicker. Roth conversions. Realizing capital gains at better rates. Deciding which account you spend from first, which is its own decision with its own logic. Then required withdrawals put a floor under your taxable income. You can't go under it. Once that floor exists, the room you were working with is smaller.

If you came here for the short version of the timing, the Learning Center answer is a faster read.

On conversions, the useful question is how much

People ask me whether they should do Roth conversions. The more useful question is how much.

Most of the time the shortfall is dosage. People underdo them. A little, when it feels right, with no target. So the problem they were trying to solve gets half solved. A real plan names a bracket to fill each year, and says why that bracket. The dosage question is written up here.

The reason to bother is often the survivor

Picture a couple where one spouse outlives the other by a decade or more. The survivor eventually files single. The single brackets are narrower than the joint ones at the same income (IRS). Meanwhile the required withdrawals on the same balance keep climbing into their eighties. It starts to feel like a tax penalty at the end of life, landing on the person least equipped to deal with it.

Two things soften the edge of that. Joint rates apply for the year the spouse dies. And a surviving spouse with a qualifying dependent may be able to use qualifying surviving spouse status "for 2 years following the year your spouse died" (IRS Publication 501). After that it's single.

That's the widow tax. Converting during the gap years, while both people are alive and filing jointly, is one of the quieter things you can do about it. It's also why we'll sometimes spend the tax-deferred account first, ahead of the usual order, when that pattern is visible.

If you already give money away, give it from the account

This is the one I get animated about.

Once you're 70 and a half, you can send money straight from an IRA to a charity. It doesn't count as income to you. It's called a qualified charitable distribution, and it counts toward your required amount. The money has to move directly from the IRA trustee to the charity (IRS). For 2026 the exclusion is capped at $111,000 (IRS Notice 2025-67).

The order inside the year matters. That direct transfer is what makes it qualify in the first place. So a withdrawal already paid out to you can't be turned into one afterward. Plan the giving at the same time you plan the withdrawal.

It irks me to tip the IRS. If you're giving the money anyway, there's no reason for the tax to come along for the ride.

Inherited accounts run on a different clock

If you inherited a retirement account from someone who wasn't your spouse, you're generally emptying it inside ten years. The deadline is December 31 of the year containing the 10th anniversary of the owner's death. A small slice taken over your lifetime is the older picture, and some beneficiaries are still treated that way. The IRS calls them eligible designated beneficiaries: "the owner's surviving spouse, the owner's minor child, a disabled individual, a chronically ill individual, or any other individual who is not more than 10 years younger than the IRA owner" (IRS Publication 590-B).

Where the ten-year clock does apply, two reactions are common. Take it all at once and absorb the whole thing in one tax year. Or take an even tenth every year without thinking. Both usually miss the point. You get to choose which of those ten years absorb the income. If you're mid-career now and you'll retire inside that window, the low-income years are worth saving room in.

One more thing catches people. The rules changed, and they didn't change retroactively. So accounts inherited from different people at different times can be on different rulebooks. Two of them can look identical on a statement and run on two different clocks. Establish which rulebook each one is under before you decide anything about order or pace.

Questions that come up once this is on the table

Do Roth accounts have required withdrawals?

Not for the owner. That covers Roth IRAs and designated Roth accounts inside a workplace plan. The IRS puts it as withdrawals from those "are not required until after the death of the account owner" (IRS). It's a large part of why the conversion conversation exists at all. An inherited Roth is a separate matter, so don't carry the assumption over to one you were left.

I'm still working at 73. Do I have to take one from my current plan?

Often no. Someone participating in a workplace plan "can delay taking their RMDs until the year they retire, unless they're a 5% owner of the business sponsoring the plan" (IRS). That exception covers the plan where you're still working, and it doesn't reach IRAs. It's also plan-specific, so read your plan document or ask the administrator before you assume.

Can I leave the money in and let my kids deal with it?

Not once you're past your applicable age. And the premise is worth a second look on its own. A large pre-tax balance left to a child in their peak earning years hands them a ten-year window, and the money comes out on top of their salary. Sometimes that's still the right answer. It's better arrived at on purpose.

Does taking the withdrawal mean I have to spend it?

No. It has to leave the account and be taxed, and it doesn't have to be consumed. Plenty of people move it into a brokerage account and keep it invested. That changes the tax treatment going forward without changing anything about the plan.

Two things to write down this week

First, your applicable age from your birth year. Then your required beginning date. Then the number of years between now and then. That count is your window, and it's the number the rest of the planning hangs on.

Second, a list of every account that will owe a withdrawal. Mark the workplace plans, because each of those has to pay its own.

What you convert, what you spend from, and how the accounts are invested all press on each other. So they get decided in the same conversation, at one table. A conversion plan built without the withdrawal order is half a plan, and so is the reverse.

The arithmetic is quick to learn. The years in front of it are where the work is.

If you want a second set of eyes on your own window, an Explore Call is a short conversation about what's on your mind. If we're not a fit I'll say so plainly.

Keep exploring

When it helps, the free Roth Conversion Timing guide walks through the pieces in plain English, and you can start with a no-pressure Explore Call any time.

Sources

For discussion purposes only. This is general education and it isn't individualized tax or investment advice. Start ages, plan exceptions, inflation-adjusted limits and inherited account rules all depend on your birth year, your plan documents and who you inherited from. Review your own situation with the right professional before you act.

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