Can you take more than your required minimum distribution?

Yes. The RMD is a floor. You can withdraw as much above it as you like, and the whole amount is taxed as ordinary income in the year you take it. Withdrawing more in one year does not reduce the minimum for the next year, apart from the effect of a lower account balance.

Do you have to take an RMD if you are still working?

For a workplace plan such as a 401(k), many plans let you delay RMDs from that plan until you retire, as long as you do not own 5% or more of the employer. The exception does not cover IRAs, which require distributions from the starting age whether or not you still work. Check your plan's rules.

Do RMDs apply to inherited IRAs?

Yes, under a separate set of rules that depend on who died, when, and your relationship to them. Many non-spouse beneficiaries must empty the account within a set number of years and may also owe yearly distributions along the way. IRS Publication 590-B covers the options and is worth reading before the first deadline.

Required Minimum Distribution (RMD): Age, Formula and Penalty

December 31 sets next year’s number. The balance in a traditional IRA at the close of that day, divided by a figure from an IRS table, is the least you must take out over the following twelve months. The rest is timing and exceptions.

When they start

SECURE 2.0 put the starting age at 73. For anyone born in 1960 or later it becomes 75. The year you reach that age is your first distribution year, and the rules reach traditional IRAs, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, and most workplace plans such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s, whether the money went in through payroll or on your own.

Roth IRAs are exempt for the original owner. Since 2024 the same holds for Roth 401(k)s and other Roth accounts inside workplace plans. That difference is part of the case covered in Roth or traditional IRA.

How to calculate it

Take the account balance at the close of the previous year. Look up your age in the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. Divide.

The period shrinks each year. So the share you must withdraw rises with age, even on a flat balance, and if your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than ten years younger than you, a different IRS table with longer periods applies and the required amount comes out lower. The retirement withdrawal calculator fits RMDs into a wider withdrawal plan.

Each IRA has its own RMD. You may add them up and take the total from any one IRA or several. Workplace plans such as 401(k)s are stricter: each plan’s RMD generally comes from that plan.

The first-year deadline

Every RMD after the first is due by December 31. The first gets until April 1 of the following year. Using that grace period puts two distributions in one tax year.

Doubling up can push income into a higher bracket, raise the taxable share of Social Security or lift Medicare premiums, and taking the first RMD in the year you actually reach the starting age avoids all of that by spreading the income across two tax years. It is usually the simpler choice. The tax landmines after the last paycheck course goes through the bracket effects in order.

Where it shows on tax forms

IRS forms carry most of the story. Form 5498, sent by the IRA custodian, flags when an RMD is due for the coming year and may report the amount or offer to calculate it. Form 1099-R reports what you withdrew. That figure goes on your return as income. Form 5329 reports a shortfall, with the excise tax or a request to waive it.

What happens if you miss one

The penalty is a 25% excise tax on the shortfall. Fix it within the IRS correction window and the rate drops to 10%. For a reasonable error that you put right, the IRS can waive the tax entirely.

What people get wrong

A common error is taking the RMD from the wrong account. An IRA withdrawal can’t cover a 401(k)’s RMD. Another is forgetting that a qualified charitable distribution, paid straight from an IRA to a charity, counts toward the RMD and keeps that amount out of taxable income, subject to IRS age and dollar limits that are set out in Publication 590-B and adjusted over time. A third is assuming a Roth conversion can stand in for the RMD. The RMD comes out first. Only amounts above it can be converted.

People also overlook withholding. You can ask the custodian to hold back federal income tax from the distribution itself, and the IRS treats tax withheld this way as if it had been paid evenly through the year, so a single December RMD with enough withholding can cover what you would otherwise send in quarterly estimated payments. Situations differ, so check the numbers with your own return.

Required beginning date is the deadline for the first distribution. The Uniform Lifetime Table is the IRS schedule of distribution periods. A qualified charitable distribution is an IRA gift straight to charity. More on planning withdrawals sits under retirement.