RETIREMENT · TAX YEAR 2026

2026 RMD calculator

Find your required minimum distribution (RMD) for an IRA you own, the amount remaining after eligible withdrawals, and your deadline. Use your December 31, 2025 balance and age at the end of 2026.

Account and balance

Account type and ownership

For living original owners. Inherited accounts and employer plans require different rules and stop this estimate.

Your birth year

We calculate the age you reach in 2026, even if your birthday has not happened yet.

Eligible IRA balance on December 31, 2025

Use the custodian's adjusted year-end value. Combine only your own eligible IRAs using the same lifetime factor. Exclude employer plans and inherited accounts. This tool does not calculate IRA annuities.

Withdrawals and beneficiary

Distributions already credited toward this 2026 RMD (optional)

Enter eligible gross distributions from the included IRAs, before tax withholding. Exclude withdrawals allocated to a deferred 2025 first RMD, rollovers, and excess withdrawals from prior years.

For any included IRA, is your spouse the sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger than you?

Use the applicable beneficiary status under IRS rules, generally January 1. Exactly 10 years younger uses the Uniform Lifetime Table. A qualifying spouse more than 10 years younger requires the Joint and Last Survivor Table.

Enter nonnegative money amounts with up to two decimal places; commas and dollar signs are accepted. Blank distributions mean zero.

Your 2026 RMD estimate

Choose your account type and spouse-beneficiary answer, then calculate.

This estimates a distribution requirement, not tax due, a penalty, or an investment withdrawal plan. Confirm adjusted balances and credited distributions with your IRA custodian.

IRS worksheet for a sole-beneficiary spouse more than 10 years younger · IRS inherited IRA and beneficiary rules

How to calculate a 2026 IRA RMD

Divide your adjusted December 31, 2025 account balance by the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table factor for the age you reach in 2026. Subtract eligible distributions already credited to the 2026 requirement to estimate the amount remaining; the remainder cannot be negative.

For multiple eligible original-owner IRAs with the same factor, dividing the combined balance gives the same unrounded total as calculating each IRA separately. The IRS requires a calculation for each IRA but allows the eligible IRA total to be taken from one or more of those IRAs. Ask the custodian to handle annuity interests and special balance adjustments, such as outstanding rollovers.

Worked example: age 73 and a $500,000 balance

An IRA owner born in 1953 reaches age 73 in 2026. A $500,000 year-end balance divided by 26.5 equals $18,867.9245… . This tool rounds upward to $18,867.93. If $5,000 of eligible distributions has already been credited to 2026, the displayed remainder is $13,867.93.

Rounding upward to the next cent is this calculator's display convention, not a separate IRS rounding requirement. It avoids displaying slightly less than the unrounded estimate. Custodian calculations and rounding across multiple accounts can differ by cents.

When does my first RMD start?

The starting age depends on birth date. For the cohorts approaching their first RMD now, it is 73 for births in 1951–1959 and 75 for births in 1960 or later. A 1959 birth gives an anticipated first year of 2032 at age 73 under the IRS's published interpretation; a 1960 birth gives 2035 at age 75. Future dates assume the current published rules continue.

People born in 1950 started at age 72. Earlier birthdays use the historical 70½/72 rules. A birth year alone cannot identify the exact historical first year for 1949 or earlier, so this tool shows that RMDs already started. That uncertainty does not change their 2026 lifetime factor or December 31 deadline.

First RMD deadline versus later deadlines

If 2026 is your first RMD year, you may receive that RMD during 2026 or defer it until April 1, 2027. Your separate 2027 RMD is still due December 31, 2027, so deferring may put two RMDs in 2027. For someone already past the first year, the 2026 RMD is due December 31, 2026.

Someone who first reached age 73 in 2025 may have a deferred 2025 RMD due April 1, 2026 and a separate 2026 RMD due December 31, 2026. This tool calculates only the 2026 requirement; it does not calculate an unpaid prior-year RMD.

Accounts and cases this tool supports

Use it for living original owners of traditional and rollover IRAs, including traditional SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, using the Uniform Lifetime Table. Continuing to work does not postpone these IRA requirements. An original owner's Roth IRA has no lifetime RMD; an inherited Roth IRA follows beneficiary rules.

Inherited IRAs, employer plans, IRA annuity calculations, and sole-beneficiary spouses more than 10 years younger require different treatment. Do not combine accounts requiring different tables. The spouse exception uses IRS Table II and its worksheet; selecting it stops this estimate.

IRS Uniform Lifetime Table for 2026 RMDs

Table III from IRS Publication 590-B, Appendix B (page 67). The age-72 row is included for completeness; it does not make a person turning 72 in 2026 subject to an owner IRA RMD.

Age reached during the distribution year and lifetime divisor
Age	Factor	Age	Factor
72	27.4	97	7.8
73	26.5	98	7.3
74	25.5	99	6.8
75	24.6	100	6.4
76	23.7	101	6.0
77	22.9	102	5.6
78	22.0	103	5.2
79	21.1	104	4.9
80	20.2	105	4.6
81	19.4	106	4.3
82	18.5	107	4.1
83	17.7	108	3.9
84	16.8	109	3.7
85	16.0	110	3.5
86	15.2	111	3.4
87	14.4	112	3.3
88	13.7	113	3.1
89	12.9	114	3.0
90	12.2	115	2.9
91	11.5	116	2.8
92	10.8	117	2.7
93	10.1	118	2.5
94	9.5	119	2.3
95	8.9	120+	2.0
96	8.4

Official RMD rules and sources

IRS Publication 590-B: IRA distribution rules and lifetime tables.
IRS RMD FAQs: accounts, deadlines, aggregation and beneficiary-table selection.
IRS Bulletin 2024-33: birth cohorts in T.D. 10001 and the proposed clarification of age 73 for people born in 1959.

Rules checked October 6, 2026. See all calculator assumptions and sources.