RMD Calculator

Exactly how much does the IRS force you to pull from your retirement accounts this year, and what does it do to your tax bill? The number itself is one division problem. The damage it does to everything around it is the part worth planning for. This tool computes both.

The decision it solves

A required minimum distribution is the slice of your tax-deferred savings the government makes you withdraw each year once you hit your start age, whether you need the cash or not. For 2026 that age is 73 if you were born between 1951 and 1959, and 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. Miss it and the excise tax is steep: 25% of the shortfall, cut to 10% if you fix it quickly.

The calculation is the easy part. The decision is what to do with the result. A large RMD can push you into a higher bracket, tax more of your Social Security, and raise your Medicare premiums two years later through IRMAA. Seeing the number early is what gives you room to act.

How the math works

Take your account balance from December 31 of the prior year. Divide it by the distribution factor for your age from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. Older age, smaller factor, larger forced withdrawal as a share of the balance. For 2026 the factors are 26.5 at age 73, 24.6 at 75, 20.2 at 80, and 16.0 at 85.

Every dollar that comes out lands on your return as ordinary income. The tool runs the division for each account, sums your total required withdrawal, and then projects it forward, because the expensive truth is that an RMD isn’t one number. It’s a rising line. The balance compounds while the factor shrinks, so the forced income climbs nearly every year.

A worked example

You’re 73 with $1,500,000 across your traditional IRAs. The factor for 73 is 26.5.

$1,500,000 ÷ 26.5 ≈ $56,604

That’s your required withdrawal, all of it taxable as ordinary income on top of whatever else you’re reporting. Now look ahead. Hold a similar balance to age 80 and the factor drops to 20.2, so the same-size account forces out roughly $74,000. The withdrawal grew by a third without you touching a thing. That climb is the whole reason to plan before the RMD starts, not after.

If your accounts are large

The fix begins years before the first RMD, not during it. Roth conversions in your 60s, while your income is low, shrink the balance that gets divided later, so they shrink every future RMD at once. Once distributions begin, a qualified charitable distribution sends up to $111,000 in 2026 straight from your IRA to charity and keeps it entirely off your return, satisfying the RMD without adding a dollar of taxable income. Neither move works as a December scramble.

The RMD is the rare tax bill that announces itself decades ahead. Run the number, look down the road, and start shrinking it long before it arrives.