An individual retirement account, more commonly referred to as an IRA, is a good place to save for your retirement. Once you reach a certain age, though, you’ll have to start taking a minimum amount out of your account each year, called a required minimum distribution (RMD). The RMD table the IRS provides can help you figure out how much you should be withdrawing. This guide will take you through how to use the RMD table, explain what it means for your retirement and discuss what happens if you don’t hit the required minimum distribution for a given year.
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The age for withdrawing from retirement accounts was increased in 2020 to 72 from 70.5. The SECURE 2.0 Act, though, raised the age for RMDs to 73 for those who turned 72 in 2023. Therefore, your first RMD must be taken by April 1 of the year after which you turn 73. After that, your RMDs must be taken by December 31 of each year. Starting in 2033, though, the RMD age is increasing to 75.
Failure to meet your RMD requirement means a penalty of 25% of the not withdrawn amount of the RMD, or just 10% if the RMD is corrected within two years. Retirees may without penalty withdraw more than the RMD.
Here is the RMD table for 2024, which is based on the IRS’ Uniform Lifetime Table, which is the most widely used table (It is Table 3 on page 65). The IRS has other tables for account holders and beneficiaries of retirement funds whose spouses are much younger. Note that as of the 2023 tax year, you must be age 73 for the RMD rule to take place.
| Age | Distribution Period in Years |
| 72 | 27.4 |
| 73 | 26.5 |
| 74 | 25.5 |
| 75 | 24.6 |
| 76 | 23.7 |
| 77 | 22.9 |
| 78 | 22.0 |
| 79 | 21.1 |
| 80 | 20.2 |
| 81 | 19.4 |
| 82 | 18.5 |
| 83 | 17.7 |
| 84 | 16.8 |
| 85 | 16.0 |
| 86 | 15.2 |
| 87 | 14.4 |
| 88 | 13.7 |
| 89 | 12.9 |
| 90 | 12.2 |
| 91 | 11.5 |
| 92 | 10.8 |
| 93 | 10.1 |
| 94 | 9.5 |
| 95 | 8.9 |
| 96 | 8.4 |
| 97 | 7.8 |
| 98 | 7.3 |
| 99 | 6.8 |
| 100 | 6.4 |
| 101 | 6.0 |
| 102 | 5.6 |
| 103 | 5.2 |
| 104 | 4.9 |
| 105 | 4.6 |
| 106 | 4.3 |
| 107 | 4.1 |
| 108 | 3.9 |
| 109 | 3.7 |
| 110 | 3.5 |
| 111 | 3.4 |
| 112 | 3.3 |
| 113 | 3.1 |
| 114 | 3.0 |
| 115 | 2.9 |
| 116 | 2.8 |
| 117 | 2.7 |
| 118 | 2.5 |
| 119 | 2.3 |
| 120 and over | 2.0 |
So, how can you figure out how much you need to take out based on the above table? Here’s how to do the calculation:
Do you need help figuring out your required minimum distributions? Try SmartAsset’s RMD calculator to learn more.
Make sure you do this for all of the traditional IRAs you have in your name. Once you add up all of the required minimum distributions for each of your accounts, you can take that total amount out of any of your IRAs. You don’t have to take the minimum distribution from each account as long as the total money you withdraw adds up.
This only applies to traditional IRAs, not Roth IRAs. Note that the above RMD table also doesn’t apply to you if you have a spouse who is the sole beneficiary of your IRA and who is more than 10 years younger than you.
You may find yourself wondering why there is a required minimum distribution for your IRA. After all, it’s your money, so why can’t you take it out of your account at your own pace? The answer to this question is the same as the answer to many questions when it comes to financial matters: taxes.
You don’t pay taxes on the money in your IRA when you put it in. Instead, you pay taxes when you withdraw the funds in retirement. The money will be taxed according to your current tax bracket. This is beneficial if you are in a lower tax bracket in retirement than you were when you first earned the money.
If you were to leave all of your money in your IRA, it would eventually become eligible to be passed on as inheritance and perhaps end up un-taxed. The required minimum distribution forces you to take out some money while it can still be taxed.
You will have to pay a fairly significant tax penalty if you do not take the minimum distribution. You’ll pay a 25% tax penalty on required money that was not withdrawn, or 10% if you correct it within two years. So if you are age 78 and you have an IRA balance of $100,000, your RMD for the year would be $4,545.45 (which is calculated by dividing your balance by distribution period years in the table above).
However, there are steps you can take to fix a missed RMD deadline. The first step is to correct your mistake by taking the RMD amount that you previously failed to take. Next, you need to notify the IRS of your mistake by filing IRS Form 5329 and attaching a letter explaining why you failed to take the required withdrawal. The IRS will consider waiving the penalty tax due to a “reasonable error,” which may include illness, a change in address or faulty advice on your distribution.
If you have an IRA, you may be trying to delay taking money out of it for as long as you can so that your investments can keep earning interest. But you’ll have to make the required minimum distributions. The SECURE 2.0 Act raised the age for RMDs to 73 starting with the 2023 tax year. The RMD table, shown above, lists the minimum required distribution for your age. Required minimum distributions exist to prevent retirees from never taking the money out, thus allowing the funds to pass, un-taxed, as an inheritance.
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Ben Geier, CEPF®Ben Geier is an experienced financial writer currently serving as a retirement and investing expert at SmartAsset. His work has appeared on Fortune, Mic.com and CNNMoney. Ben is a graduate of Northwestern University and a part-time student at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance® (CEPF®) and a member of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. When he isn’t helping people understand their finances, Ben likes watching hockey, listening to music and experimenting in the kitchen. Originally from Alexandria, VA, he now lives in Brooklyn with his wife.
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