RMD Age: When You Must Start Withdrawing from Retirement Accounts

Picture this: you turn 73, you're finally settled into retirement, and your IRA custodian sends you a letter. It's not a birthday card. It's a notice that the IRS now requires you to withdraw a specific dollar amount from your retirement account, whether you need the money or not.

Welcome to required minimum distributions. The age at which they begin has changed three times in the last five years, and there's still confusion about who falls where. Let's clear it up.

The short version: If you were born between 1951 and 1959, your RMD age is 73. If you were born in 1960 or later, it's 75. Roth IRAs are exempt. Roth 401(k)s are now exempt too (as of 2024). Miss the deadline and you'll pay a 25% penalty on the amount you didn't withdraw.

The Age Timeline

Congress has pushed back the RMD starting age three times since 2019. Here's the full history:

If you were born in 1955, you must begin RMDs the year you turn 73, which would be 2028. Your first distribution is due by December 31, 2028 (or April 1, 2029, if you use the first-year extension, though that's usually a bad idea).

If you were born in 1965, you don't start until 2040 (the year you turn 75). That's 14 more years of tax-deferred growth compared to the old 70½ rule.

The 1959 Birth Year Question

This caused more confusion than any other provision in SECURE 2.0. Due to a drafting error in the legislation, the year 1959 appeared in both the "age 73" and "age 75" categories. For months, no one knew which applied.

The IRS resolved it in July 2024 proposed regulations: if you were born in 1959, your RMD age is 73 [1]. Not 75. The Groom Law Group confirmed this interpretation aligns with Congressional intent [2].

So if your birthday is in 1959, you'll turn 73 in 2032 and must take your first RMD by December 31 of that year. If you were born just one year later, in 1960, you get an extra two years (to age 75, in 2035).

Life is unfair. Tax law especially.

Which Accounts Require RMDs

Not all retirement accounts are created equal when it comes to forced withdrawals.

The Roth 401(k) exemption is one of the most significant changes in recent retirement law. Before 2024, Roth 401(k) accounts were subject to RMDs even though the withdrawals would have been tax-free. This made no logical sense (the IRS wasn't collecting any tax from the distribution anyway), and Congress finally fixed it [3].

If you have a Roth 401(k) and were previously rolling it into a Roth IRA just to avoid RMDs, you no longer need to. That said, rolling into a Roth IRA can still make sense for other reasons, like having more investment options or simplifying your accounts.

The "Still Working" Exception

There's a lesser-known loophole: if you're still working and don't own more than 5% of the company, you can delay RMDs from your current employer's 401(k) until you actually retire [3]. This only applies to the 401(k) at the job you're still doing. It doesn't apply to IRAs or old 401(k)s from previous employers.

Example: Margaret is 74 and still working part-time at a hospital. She has a 403(b) at the hospital and a Traditional IRA from a previous job. She must take RMDs from the IRA, but she can delay them from the hospital 403(b) until she fully retires.

This matters more than you'd think. About 80% of retirees take only the bare minimum required [4]. If you're still earning a salary, adding an RMD on top could push you into a higher bracket unnecessarily. The still-working exception lets you avoid that.

(Margaret, by the way, could also be doing Roth conversions on that old IRA while her hospital income fills the lower brackets. The possibilities compound when you know the rules.)

Inherited IRAs: A Different Set of Rules

When you inherit an IRA, the RMD rules change depending on your relationship to the deceased and when they died.

Spouse beneficiaries have the most flexibility. You can treat the inherited IRA as your own, roll it into your existing IRA, or take distributions based on your own life expectancy.

Non-spouse beneficiaries (children, siblings, friends) who inherited after 2019 generally must empty the account within 10 years of the owner's death. The IRS initially said you could wait until Year 10 and take it all at once. Then they changed course, proposing that if the original owner had already started RMDs, beneficiaries must take annual distributions within that 10-year window [5].

The IRS waived penalties for missed annual distributions on inherited accounts for 2021 through 2024. Starting in 2025, the penalties are expected to kick in. If you inherited an IRA and haven't been taking annual distributions, check with your custodian immediately.

How the RMD Formula Works

The calculation itself is dead simple. Divide your December 31 account balance by the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table factor for your age.

Here are the factors for key ages [6]:

Notice how the percentage climbs. At 73, you're withdrawing under 4%. By 90, it's over 8%. The IRS is accelerating withdrawals as you age, ensuring they get their tax revenue during your lifetime.

If your spouse is more than 10 years younger and is the sole beneficiary, you use the Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy Table instead. That table produces a longer life expectancy (higher divisor), which means a smaller annual RMD.

The Tax Bracket Impact

The real danger of RMDs isn't the withdrawal itself. It's the tax bracket collision.

A retiree with $500,000 in a Traditional IRA at age 73 has an RMD of about $18,868. Add $35,000 in Social Security benefits (roughly 85% taxable, or about $29,750), and you're looking at nearly $49,000 in taxable income before any other sources. After the standard deduction for a single filer 65+ (approximately $16,550 for 2026, including the age add-on), taxable income is around $32,000. That puts you solidly in the 12% bracket.

Now imagine that IRA balance is $900,000 (not unusual for diligent savers). The RMD jumps to $33,962. Combined with Social Security, total income approaches $64,000. Taxable income after deductions: roughly $47,000. You're now knocking on the door of the 22% bracket, where singles hit about $50,350 in 2026 [7].

This is exactly why pre-RMD Roth conversions matter. Every dollar converted before age 73 reduces the IRA balance that the RMD formula applies to. For the full strategy, see our guide to retirement withdrawal strategies.

Your Next Move

1. Find your birth year in the table above. That's your RMD age. Mark it on your calendar now, even if it's years away.

2. Check all your accounts. List every Traditional IRA, 401(k), 403(b), and SIMPLE IRA you own. Each one (except for multiple IRAs, which you can aggregate) requires its own RMD calculation.

3. If you're within 5 years of your RMD age, start planning Roth conversions. Use our compound interest calculator to model how conversions now reduce your future RMD amounts and tax liability.

4. If you've inherited an IRA since 2020, confirm you're on track. The 10-year rule is real, and annual distributions may be required starting in 2025. Call your custodian.

5. Don't let the RMD become your spending plan. The IRS table isn't designed to optimize your retirement. It's designed to collect taxes. Build your spending plan based on what you actually need, and read our guide on how to avoid running out of money in retirement for a more complete approach.

References

1. Ascensus. (2024). More Changes for RMDs: Final Regulations and 1959 Clarification. Ascensus.com.
2. Groom Law Group. (2024). IRS Finalizes and Proposes More Required Minimum Distribution Rules. Groom.com.
3. Internal Revenue Service. (2024). Retirement Topics: Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). IRS.gov.
4. J.P. Morgan Asset Management. (2024). 2024 Guide to Retirement.
5. Internal Revenue Service. (2024). Notice 2024-35: Inherited IRA RMD Waiver.
6. Internal Revenue Service. (2025). Publication 590-B: Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs). IRS.gov.
7. Tax Foundation. (2025). 2025 Federal Income Tax Brackets and Rates. TaxFoundation.org.