RMD Calculator (SECURE 2.0 Updated)

Required minimum distributions start at 73, or 75 if you were born in 1960 or later (SECURE 2.0). Your first RMD is for the year you reach that age, and you may delay it until April 1 of the following year. Every later RMD is due by December 31 (IRS). Delaying the first one means two taxable RMDs in the same year, which is rarely a good trade for anyone whose income is already in the 22% bracket or near a Medicare IRMAA threshold.

A few rules catch experienced investors out. If you own several IRAs, you calculate the RMD for each one but can take the total from any of them; 401(k) and 457(b) plans must each pay out their own RMD. If you are still working at RMD age and do not own 5% or more of the employer, that employer's plan can usually wait until you retire, though your IRAs cannot. An RMD can never be rolled over into another tax-deferred account (IRS RMD FAQs). A missed RMD carries a 25% excise tax on the shortfall, cut to 10% if you correct it within two years.

The size of the RMD is set by two things you cannot change once you reach RMD age: the prior year-end balance and the IRS divisor for your age. The divisor falls every year, from 26.5 at 73 to 20.2 at 80 and 12.2 at 90, so the required percentage rises from about 3.8% to about 5% and then 8.2%. The only lever left is the balance, and the time to shrink it is before RMDs begin.

Because every dollar converted before RMD age is a dollar that will never be forced out, and you choose the tax rate on it. A Roth IRA has no required distributions during your lifetime, grows tax-free, and passes to heirs tax-free. The window between retiring and the first RMD, typically your early 60s to 73 or 75, is often the lowest-income stretch of your adult life: the paycheck has stopped, Social Security may not have started, and there are no RMDs yet. Converting in those years uses low brackets that would otherwise go to waste.

A conversion is taxed as ordinary income in the year you make it. It is not subject to the 10% early withdrawal penalty, and since 2018 it cannot be undone: a conversion can no longer be recharacterized back to a traditional IRA (IRS Publication 590-B). Pay the tax from a taxable account if you can. Paying it out of the conversion itself shrinks what reaches the Roth and defeats much of the purpose.

Conversions make the most sense when the tax-deferred balance is large enough that RMDs, Social Security and any pension will push you into a higher bracket later, when a surviving spouse would pay tax as a single filer on the same IRA, or when your heirs are in higher brackets than you. They make less sense if your IRA is modest, if you expect to leave a large share to charity (a charity pays no tax on an inherited IRA), or if you would have to use IRA money to pay the conversion tax. Our guide to Roth conversions before RMDs walks through a full multi-year plan.

How much should you convert each year?

The usual method is bracket filling: convert just enough each year to reach the top of a chosen bracket and no further. The table shows how much total ordinary income, including the conversion, pensions, IRA withdrawals and the taxable part of Social Security, fits below each rate in 2026 for filers 65 or older taking the standard deduction. It includes the additional deduction for age 65 and the $6,000 senior deduction, which phases out as income rises and ends after 2028.

Taxable-income tops of the brackets from IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32; gross figures add the standard deduction, the 65+ additional deduction and the senior deduction as phased at that income. Both spouses assumed 65+.

Which bracket to fill depends on the rate you expect later. Estimate your first RMD with the calculator above, add Social Security and any pension, and see which bracket that lands in. If the answer is 24%, converting through the 22% bracket now is a clear win; if it is 12%, conversions above 12% probably are not. While only part of your Social Security is taxable, each extra dollar of RMD can make up to 85 cents of benefits taxable too, so the real rate can be well above the bracket. The taxable Social Security calculator shows how RMDs and the Social Security tax torpedo combine at your income.

How do conversions interact with Medicare IRMAA?

A conversion raises your modified adjusted gross income, and Medicare uses that figure from two years earlier to set Part B and Part D premiums (SSA). So conversions from age 63 onward can raise premiums from 65. In 2026 the first surcharge applies above $218,000 of joint income or $109,000 single, and each tier is a cliff: one dollar over triggers the whole surcharge (CMS, 2026). The top of the 22% bracket for a couple sits above the first IRMAA line, so many couples stop converting just below $218,000 instead. Paying one tier of surcharge for a single year is sometimes worth it to move a large balance; paying it every year rarely is. The healthcare cost estimator lists every tier.

How do conversions interact with ACA health insurance before 65?

If you retire before 65 and buy coverage on the ACA Marketplace, a conversion can cost you far more in lost premium tax credit than in income tax. The credit is based on the same household income a conversion raises. The enhanced credits that removed the upper income limit expired at the end of 2025, so in 2026 the credit again stops entirely at 400% of the federal poverty level (Congressional Research Service). A conversion that pushes a couple one dollar past that line can cost them the whole subsidy for the year. Many early retirees keep income under the line until Medicare starts, then convert heavily from 65 to RMD age. Check the current rules on HealthCare.gov before converting in a Marketplace year, as Congress has debated restoring the enhanced credits.

What else does a conversion change?

Three other figures move with income. The senior deduction shrinks by 6% of income above $75,000 single or $150,000 joint. Up to 85% of Social Security becomes taxable as income rises past fixed thresholds (SSA). And converted income fills the space where long-term capital gains would otherwise be taxed at 0%. Once you reach RMD age, the year's RMD must come out before anything is converted, because an RMD cannot be rolled over and a conversion counts as a rollover. State income tax applies too, unless your state exempts it.

A qualified charitable distribution sends money directly from your IRA to a charity, counts toward your RMD, and never shows up in your adjusted gross income. From age 70½ you can give up to $111,000 a year this way in 2026, and a spouse with their own IRA can give the same amount again (IRS Publication 590-B). For anyone who gives to charity each year, it is the most efficient way to do it after 70½.

It beats writing a check and deducting it for three reasons. Most retirees take the standard deduction, so a checkbook gift produces no tax benefit at all. Even for those who itemize, excluding income is better than deducting it, because a lower adjusted gross income also keeps Medicare premiums below the IRMAA tiers, reduces how much of your Social Security is taxable, and preserves the senior deduction. And the QCD satisfies the RMD, so money you were going to give anyway replaces money you were forced to withdraw.

The rules that decide whether a QCD counts

• Age 70½, not RMD age. You can make QCDs from 70½, years before RMDs begin at 73 or 75. Gifts before RMD age do not satisfy anything yet, but they shrink the IRA that future RMDs will be based on.
• Directly from the IRA to the charity. The custodian must pay the charity. If the money reaches you first, it is a taxable withdrawal. Many custodians offer IRA checkbooks or online QCD requests.
• IRAs only. QCDs come from traditional IRAs and inherited IRAs, not from a 401(k) or an active SEP or SIMPLE IRA. Roll workplace money into an IRA first if you want to give from it. If you are giving from an inherited IRA, the Inherited IRA RMD Calculator shows what you must take this year.
• Public charities only. Donor-advised funds, supporting organizations and most private foundations do not qualify (26 U.S.C. §408(d)(8)).
• Get the receipt. You need the same written acknowledgment from the charity that a deductible gift would need, and you report the full distribution on Form 1040 line 4a with the taxable amount on 4b reduced and "QCD" written beside it. Your 1099-R will not flag it for you.
• Do it first. Once you have taken the year's RMD in cash, a later QCD cannot make that withdrawal tax-free. Make the QCD early in the year, then take whatever RMD remains.
• Watch late IRA contributions. Deductible IRA contributions made after 70½ reduce the amount of later QCDs you can exclude, dollar for dollar.

There is also a one-time election to make a QCD to a charitable gift annuity or charitable remainder trust, subject to a much smaller cap; see Publication 590-B for the current figure. Our guide to qualified charitable distributions covers gifting strategies, including how QCDs fit with larger gifts of appreciated stock.

What a QCD saves, in one example

Illustrative example: the people and figures below are hypothetical, not real clients. Numbers are calculated from the stated assumptions.

Margaret, 74 and widowed, had $1,200,000 in her IRA at the end of last year, so her RMD this year is $47,059 ($1,200,000 divided by the IRS factor of 25.5). She also has a $40,000 pension and $40,000 of Social Security, and she gives $20,000 a year to her church and a local hospital.

Writing checks, she withdraws the full RMD, her adjusted gross income is about $121,000, and the gifts produce no tax benefit because she takes the standard deduction. Giving the $20,000 as a QCD instead, her taxable RMD falls to $27,059 and her income to about $101,000. Her federal tax falls by about $4,660 (slightly more than 22% of the gift, because more of the senior deduction survives the phase-out), and her income drops below the $109,000 single-filer IRMAA line, which would lower her Medicare premiums two years later if the thresholds are similar then.