RMD Table for 2026: The IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, Ages 72 to 120

The Uniform Lifetime Table for 2026

Find the age you reach in 2026. The distribution period is the divisor. The percentage column shows the same thing as a share of the balance, and the three dollar columns show the RMD for a prior year-end balance of $100,000, $500,000 and $1,000,000.

Dollar amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar. Source: IRS Publication 590-B, Appendix B, Table III; Treas. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-9(c). The table begins at 72 because that was the starting age when it was issued; nobody now reaches a first RMD before 73.

Who uses this table

The Uniform Lifetime Table applies to the owner of the account during their own lifetime: unmarried owners, married owners whose spouse is not more than 10 years younger, and married owners whose spouse is not the sole beneficiary. It is the same for men and women and takes no account of health. Two groups use a different table. An owner whose sole beneficiary is a spouse more than 10 years younger uses the Joint Life and Last Survivor table, which gives a smaller RMD. A beneficiary who has inherited an account uses the Single Life table.

What the numbers mean

The distribution period is not the owner's own life expectancy. It is the joint life expectancy of the owner and a hypothetical beneficiary exactly 10 years younger, which is why the divisor at 73 is 26.5 years, well beyond what a 73-year-old alone would be given. The effect is a schedule that starts gently and steepens. The required share is 3.77% at 73, 4.95% at 80, 8.20% at 90 and 15.63% at 100. Because the divisor never reaches 1, the table never forces the account to zero; in the early years the required share is small enough that an account earning a moderate return can keep growing even as the minimum is taken.

The minimum is a floor, not a recommendation. You may always withdraw more, but a larger withdrawal this year earns no credit toward next year's RMD.

How do you use the RMD table?

1. Find the balance on December 31 of last year. It is on the year-end statement, and the custodian also reports it to the IRS on Form 5498. Use the value of each account separately.
2. Find your divisor. Look up the age you reach on your birthday this year, not your age today.
3. Divide. The balance divided by the distribution period is the RMD for that account for this year.

Worked example

A hypothetical owner born in 1953 turns 73 in 2026, so 2026 is the first RMD year. The traditional IRA held $850,000 on December 31, 2025.

The custodian will usually calculate the figure and show it on a January statement, but the IRS holds the owner responsible for getting it right. Custodians cannot see accounts held elsewhere and do not know whether a much younger spouse is the sole beneficiary, so the number they report is a starting point.

At what age do RMDs start?

The starting age depends on the year you were born. The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 raised it to 73 for people who reach 72 after 2022, and to 75 for people who reach 74 after 2032.

Sources: SECURE 2.0 Act, section 107 (Pub. L. 117-328, Division T); Treas. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-2(b)(2).

When is the first RMD due?

The first RMD is for the year you reach the starting age. That one distribution, and only that one, may be delayed until April 1 of the following year. Every RMD after it is due by December 31 of its own year.

Two RMDs in one year

Delaying the first RMD does not skip a year. The second RMD is still due by December 31 of the year in which the April 1 deadline falls, so both are taxed on the same return. The delayed first RMD is still figured from the earlier balance and the earlier age; only the payment date moves.

Continuing the example above, and assuming for simplicity that the account neither gains nor loses value: if the 2026 RMD of $32,075.47 is taken by December 31, 2026, the 2027 RMD on the reduced balance is $32,075.47, and each year's return carries one distribution. If the first RMD is put off to early 2027, the 2027 return carries $32,075.47 plus a second RMD of $33,333.33, a total of $65,408.80. The second figure is slightly larger in the delay case because the money not yet withdrawn was still in the account on December 31, 2026.

Doubling up can lift income into a higher tax bracket, make more of a Social Security benefit taxable, or cross a Medicare premium threshold two years later; our IRMAA brackets page lists those lines. Delay can still be the better choice for someone whose income in the first year is unusually high, for example a final year of salary.

Source: IRS, RMD FAQs; Treas. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-2(b).

Which accounts have RMDs, and which can be combined?

You calculate an RMD for every account that has one. Whether you must then withdraw it from that same account depends on the type.

The groups do not mix. An IRA withdrawal cannot satisfy a 401(k) RMD, a 403(b) withdrawal cannot satisfy an IRA RMD, and a withdrawal from your own IRA does nothing for an IRA you inherited. Accounts are also personal: a married couple cannot take both RMDs from one spouse's IRA. People with several old workplace plans often roll them into a single IRA partly to reduce the number of separate RMDs, though the RMD due for the year of the rollover has to be taken first, because an RMD itself can never be rolled over or converted to a Roth.

The Roth rows matter for planning. Roth IRAs have never had lifetime RMDs. Designated Roth accounts inside 401(k) and 403(b) plans did until SECURE 2.0 removed the requirement for 2024 and later years. Money moved to a Roth before the starting age is therefore outside the table for the rest of the owner's life, which is the reasoning behind Roth conversions before RMDs. How RMDs fit with drawing on taxable and Roth money is covered in retirement withdrawal order.

Sources: IRS, RMD FAQs; Treas. Reg. 1.408-8; SECURE 2.0 Act, section 325.

What is the still-working exception?

If you are still employed when you reach the starting age, the plan of the employer you currently work for can usually let you wait. In that case the first RMD from that plan is for the year you retire, with the same April 1 grace period. Four conditions limit it:

• It covers only the current employer's plan. Plans left behind at former employers start on the normal schedule.
• It never covers IRAs, including SEP and SIMPLE IRAs. Those begin at 73 or 75 whether or not you are working.
• It is not available to anyone who owns more than 5% of the business that sponsors the plan.
• The plan document has to allow it. Most do, but a plan may require distributions at the starting age regardless.

Some plans accept roll-ins. Where that is allowed, moving an old 401(k) or a pre-tax IRA into the current employer's plan brings that money under the exception for as long as you keep working there.

Source: Treas. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-2(b); IRS, RMD FAQs.

When does the Joint Life table apply?

An owner may use the Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy table (Table II) in place of the Uniform Lifetime Table when the spouse is the sole beneficiary of the account for the whole year and is more than 10 years younger. The divisor is found from both ages, and it is always larger than the Uniform figure, so the RMD is smaller. Marital status is taken as of January 1; a death or divorce later in the year does not change the table for that year.

For example, an owner aged 75 whose sole beneficiary is a spouse aged 60 has a joint divisor of 28.3, against 24.6 in the Uniform table. On a $1,000,000 balance the RMD is $35,335.69 with the joint table and $40,650.41 without it, a difference of $5,314.72 that can stay in the account.

The test is applied account by account. An IRA that names the spouse as the only primary beneficiary qualifies; one that splits the primary share between the spouse and children does not. The full Table II runs to several pages; the RMD calculator looks up the right divisor for any pair of ages.

Source: IRS Publication 590-B, Appendix B, Table II; Treas. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-5.

Which table do beneficiaries use?

Beneficiaries use the Single Life Expectancy table (Table I). Its divisors are much smaller than the Uniform figures at the same age, because they reflect one life.

The table is also used differently. A beneficiary who is not the spouse looks up the divisor once, at the age they reach in the year after the owner's death, and then subtracts one each year after that. A beneficiary who is 55 in that first year starts with 31.6, so the RMD on a $400,000 inherited balance is $12,658.23; the next year's divisor is 30.6, then 29.6. A surviving spouse who is the sole beneficiary and keeps the account as an inherited IRA looks up their age afresh each year.

Whether annual amounts are required at all, and for how long, turns on the 10-year rule. Most non-spouse beneficiaries of owners who died in 2020 or later must empty the account by the end of the tenth year after death. Where the owner had already reached their required beginning date, the regulations also require annual distributions from the Single Life table in years one through nine. Certain beneficiaries, including surviving spouses, minor children of the owner, disabled or chronically ill people and those not more than 10 years younger than the owner, may use life expectancy without the 10-year limit. The inherited IRA RMD calculator works out which case applies and the yearly amounts, and the inherited IRA 10-year rule explains the categories.

One point connects the two tables. If an owner dies before taking the full RMD for that year, the remainder is still due for that year and must be taken by the beneficiaries.

Source: IRS Publication 590-B, Appendix B, Table I; final regulations (July 19, 2024).

What happens if an RMD is missed?

The shortfall is subject to an excise tax of 25%, paid by the account owner. SECURE 2.0 cut the rate from 50% beginning in 2023 and added a lower rate of 10% for shortfalls corrected promptly. On a missed $20,000, the tax is $5,000 at the full rate and $2,000 at the reduced rate.

The reduced rate applies when the missed amount is withdrawn, and a return reporting the tax is filed, within the correction window. The window opens on the date the tax is imposed and closes on the earliest of three dates: when the IRS mails a notice of deficiency for the tax, when the tax is assessed, or the last day of the second tax year after the year in which the tax was imposed. For a missed 2026 RMD, that last date is December 31, 2028.

The tax is reported on Form 5329, filed with the return for the year of the shortfall or separately for an earlier year. The IRS may waive the tax entirely if the shortfall was due to reasonable error and reasonable steps are being taken to fix it. The request is made on the same form with a written explanation, after the missed amount has been withdrawn. Whatever the outcome on the excise tax, the late distribution is ordinary income in the year it is actually taken.

Sources: 26 U.S.C. 4974; SECURE 2.0 Act, section 302; IRS, Form 5329 and instructions; Publication 590-B.

How can the RMD be taken?

The rule sets an amount and a deadline, not a method. The RMD can be taken in one withdrawal or in installments through the year, in cash or in securities, and part of it can go to charity or to the IRS as withholding.

Qualified charitable distributions

From age 70½, an IRA owner can have money paid directly from the IRA to a qualifying charity. In 2026 the limit is $111,000 per person, indexed for inflation. A qualified charitable distribution counts toward the year's RMD but is left out of adjusted gross income, which a deduction for the same gift would not achieve. Three limits apply: the payment must go from the custodian to the charity, not through the owner; donor-advised funds and private foundations are not eligible recipients; and workplace plans such as 401(k)s cannot make them. Distributions in a year count toward the RMD in the order taken, so a charitable distribution made after the full RMD has already been withdrawn does not reduce the taxable amount for that year. See qualified charitable distributions for the mechanics and reporting.

Withholding

An RMD is ordinary income, apart from any after-tax basis in the account. Federal income tax is withheld from an IRA distribution at 10% unless the owner chooses a different rate, or none, on Form W-4R. The mandatory 20% withholding that applies to rollover-eligible plan payouts does not apply to an RMD, because an RMD cannot be rolled over. State rules differ. Withholding is treated as paid evenly through the year regardless of when it is taken, so some retirees have enough withheld from a late-year RMD to cover the year's tax in place of quarterly estimated payments.

In-kind distributions

An RMD does not have to be cash. Shares or fund units can be moved from the IRA to a taxable account, and their market value on the day of transfer counts toward the RMD. That value is taxable income for the year and becomes the cost basis of the shares in the taxable account. The owner stays invested, but the tax has to be paid from other money, and the value has to be watched: if prices fall between the calculation and the transfer, the shares moved may fall short of the required amount.

Sources: IRS Publication 590-B; IRS Notice 2025-67 (2026 limits); IRS, Form W-4R.

The other figures that change each year, including contribution limits, tax brackets and Medicare premiums, are collected in this year's retirement numbers.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• IRS Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements: the three life expectancy tables (Appendix B), qualified charitable distributions, withholding and the excise tax.
• Treas. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-9: the legal source of the tables, effective for distribution years from 2022.
• Treas. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-2: starting ages and the required beginning date, including the still-working rule. Treas. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-5: how the yearly amount is figured. Treas. Reg. 1.408-8: IRAs and aggregation.
• Final RMD regulations, Federal Register, July 19, 2024 and the proposed regulations published the same day, which address people born in 1959.
• SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (Pub. L. 117-328, Division T): section 107 (starting ages), section 302 (excise tax), section 307 (charitable distributions) and section 325 (Roth plan accounts).
• 26 U.S.C. 4974: the excise tax and the correction window.
• IRS, Retirement plan and IRA required minimum distributions FAQs: deadlines, aggregation and the still-working exception in plain terms.
• IRS Form 5329 and Form W-4R.