RMD Calculator

Background.

An RMD calculator answers a specific, mandatory question every retirement-account owner eventually faces: how much am I required to withdraw this year? A Required Minimum Distribution is the minimum amount the IRS forces owners of Traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, and most employer-sponsored defined-contribution plans (401(k), 403(b), 457(b)) to withdraw annually, starting at a specific age, whether or not the money is actually needed. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act (Public Law 117-328, enacted December 2022), the RMD starting age rose from 72 to 73 for anyone reaching age 72 after December 31, 2022, and is scheduled to rise again to 75 in 2033 for individuals born in 1960 or later. This calculator computes the required withdrawal amount for any age 72 or older using the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table from Publication 590-B, Appendix B, Table III — it does not judge whether you have personally reached your required beginning date, since that depends on your birth year and the specific transition rule that applies to you.

The mechanics are simple by design: divide your account balance as of December 31 of the prior year by a single "distribution period" divisor the IRS publishes for each age, from 27.4 at age 72 down to 2.0 at age 120 and beyond. The divisor shrinks every year, which means the required percentage of the balance you must withdraw rises steadily with age — at 73 the RMD is roughly 3.8% of the balance, but by 90 it is roughly 8.2%, and by 100 it is roughly 15.6%. This table reflects joint life expectancy assumptions the Treasury Department updated effective for distribution years 2022 and later, and it is the table the overwhelming majority of account owners use. It is not the correct table if your IRA's sole beneficiary is your spouse and that spouse is more than 10 years younger than you — that situation uses the Joint Life and Last Survivor Table instead, which produces a smaller RMD and is outside the scope of this calculator.

Owners of multiple Traditional IRAs must calculate the RMD for each IRA separately using each account's own December 31 balance, but may then withdraw the combined total from any one IRA or any combination of them — the IRS only requires that the aggregate amount withdrawn meets the aggregate requirement. Owners of multiple 401(k) or other employer-plan accounts do not get that aggregation option: each plan's RMD must be withdrawn from that specific plan. Missing an RMD, or withdrawing less than required, triggers an excise tax under IRC Section 4974 — reduced by SECURE 2.0 from 50% to 25% of the shortfall, and further reduced to 10% if the shortfall is corrected within a two-year correction window.

Roth IRAs are not subject to lifetime RMDs at all for the original owner, and SECURE 2.0 extended that same RMD-free treatment to Roth 401(k) and Roth 403(b) accounts starting in 2024 — this calculator is for Traditional, pre-tax accounts. Enter your prior year-end balance and your age for the distribution year to see your required withdrawal, the table divisor behind it, and that amount expressed as a percentage of the balance. Reviewed on 2026-07-27 against IRS Publication 590-B and the current SECURE 2.0 rules. This is educational planning, not tax advice — confirm your specific required beginning date and any beneficiary-table exceptions with a tax professional or the current IRS instructions.

What is rmd calculator?

A Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) is the minimum amount the IRS requires an owner of a tax-deferred retirement account to withdraw each year once they reach a specified age, so that the government eventually collects the deferred tax on money that has been growing tax-free for decades. The requirement applies to Traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, and most employer-sponsored defined-contribution plans; it does not apply during the original owner's lifetime to Roth IRAs, and — since SECURE 2.0 took effect in 2024 — no longer applies to Roth 401(k) or Roth 403(b) accounts either. The RMD amount is calculated by dividing the account's fair market value as of December 31 of the prior year by a "distribution period" figure from an IRS life-expectancy table. The Uniform Lifetime Table (Table III in Publication 590-B) is the table almost every account owner uses; it assumes a hypothetical beneficiary exactly 10 years younger, which produces a conservative (slightly smaller) required distribution than a true single-life calculation would. A different, more generous table — the Joint Life and Last Survivor Table — applies only when the sole named beneficiary is a spouse more than 10 years younger than the account owner. The RMD starting age, historically 70½, was raised to 72 by the SECURE Act of 2019 and then to 73 by SECURE 2.0 in 2023, with a further scheduled increase to 75 in 2033 for those born in 1960 or later.

How to use this calculator.

1. 01Enter your account balance as of December 31 of the prior year — the figure your custodian reports on Form 5498 or your year-end statement.
2. 02Enter the age you turn during the year this distribution is for.
3. 03Read the divisor: the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table distribution period for that age.
4. 04Read the Required Minimum Distribution: your balance divided by the divisor.
5. 05Check the RMD as a percentage of your balance to see how the required withdrawal rate rises with age.
6. 06If you own multiple Traditional IRAs, repeat this calculation for each account's own balance, then you may withdraw the combined total from any one or a mix of them. Employer-plan RMDs must be taken from each plan separately.

The formula.

Reviewed on 2026-07-27 against IRS Publication 590-B, Appendix B, Table III (Uniform Lifetime Table), the table used by the large majority of account owners. The calculator looks up the distribution period divisor published for the account owner's age in the distribution year — 27.4 at age 72, falling steadily to 26.5 at 73, 24.6 at 75, 20.2 at 80, 16.0 at 85, 12.2 at 90, 8.9 at 95, and down to 2.0 at age 120 and beyond. The Required Minimum Distribution is the prior year-end account balance divided by that divisor: RMD = Balance ÷ Divisor(age). Because the divisor only ever shrinks as age increases, the required withdrawal is a rising percentage of the balance every year — expressed here as 100 ÷ Divisor(age). No division-by-zero case exists because every published divisor, even at the table's oldest bracket, is 2.0. This calculator does not attempt to determine whether the account owner has actually reached their required beginning date for RMD purposes, since that depends on birth year under the SECURE 2.0 transition schedule (age 73 for those reaching 72 after 2022; age 75 beginning in 2033 for those born in 1960 or later) — it reports what the table-based RMD would be for any age 72 or older that is entered. It also does not apply the alternative Joint Life and Last Survivor Table used only when the sole beneficiary is a spouse more than 10 years younger than the owner; consult IRS Publication 590-B directly for that case.

A worked example.

Frequently asked questions.

References& sources.

1. [1]Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B: Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) — Appendix B, Table III (Uniform Lifetime Table).
2. [2]Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics — Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs).
3. [3]SECURE 2.0 Act — Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, Public Law 117-328, Division T (December 29, 2022) — raised the RMD age to 73 (rising to 75 in 2033) and reduced the excise tax for missed RMDs.