Required Minimum Distributions: A 2026 Guide for Retirees

The short answer: If you have a traditional IRA, 401(k), 403(b), TSP, or similar pre-tax retirement account, the IRS requires you to begin withdrawing a portion of it each year starting at age 73. The amount is calculated using your prior year-end balance and an IRS life expectancy factor. You can’t avoid RMDs — but with planning, you can reduce how much tax you pay on them over your lifetime.

Key Takeaways

• RMDs start at age 73 for most retirees under SECURE 2.0 (rising to age 75 in 2033).
• They apply to traditional IRAs, SEP/SIMPLE IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and the TSP — but not Roth IRAs during your lifetime.
• Missing an RMD triggers a 25% penalty on the shortfall, reduced to 10% if corrected within two years.
• The best RMD planning often happens before RMDs begin — typically in your 60s through Roth conversions.
• For Maryland retirees, RMDs interact with the state’s pension exclusion and senior tax credit in ways that affect your effective tax rate.

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When Do RMDs Start?

Under SECURE 2.0, RMDs begin the year you turn 73. You must take your first RMD by April 1 of the following year, and all subsequent RMDs by December 31 each year.

The age threshold has changed twice in recent years:

• Born 1950 or earlier: RMD age was 70½ or 72
• Born 1951–1959: RMD age is 73
• Born 1960 or later: RMD age will be 75 beginning in 2033

The first-year trap. Your first RMD is the only one you can delay into the following April. But if you wait, you’ll take two RMDs in the same calendar year — your first by April 1 and your second by December 31. That doubled income often pushes retirees into a higher tax bracket or an IRMAA surcharge. For most retirees with steady income, taking the first RMD in the year you turn 73 is the cleaner move.

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Which Accounts Require RMDs?

Almost all pre-tax retirement accounts require RMDs at age 73. Roth IRAs do not. Designated Roth accounts inside employer plans (Roth 401(k), Roth TSP) no longer require RMDs under SECURE 2.0.

Account Type	RMD Required?
Traditional IRA	Yes
SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA	Yes
Traditional 401(k), 403(b), 457(b)	Yes
Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) — traditional	Yes
Roth IRA (owner’s lifetime)	No
Roth 401(k), Roth TSP	No (as of 2024)
Inherited IRAs	Yes — separate rules

Still-working exception: If you’re still employed past age 73 and own 5% or less of your employer, you can typically delay RMDs from that employer’s plan until you retire. This does not apply to IRAs or to plans from former employers.

Federal employee note: TSP RMDs follow the same rules but are calculated separately from any IRA RMDs you may have. You cannot aggregate the two. If you’ve rolled the TSP into an IRA after retiring, the RMD comes from the IRA balance.

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How Is the RMD Amount Calculated?

Your RMD equals your prior December 31 account balance divided by a life expectancy factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. As you age, the factor shrinks and your RMD percentage grows.

A simplified illustration using the Uniform Lifetime Table:

Age	Approximate Divisor	RMD as % of Balance
73	26.5	~3.77%
78	22.0	~4.55%
83	17.7	~5.65%
88	13.7	~7.30%
93	10.1	~9.90%

What this means in practice: RMDs aren’t a flat percentage. They start modestly in your 70s and accelerate sharply into your 80s and 90s — exactly when many retirees have less spending flexibility, not more. This is why front-loading tax planning in your 60s tends to pay off.

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What Happens If You Miss an RMD?

Missing an RMD triggers a 25% excise tax on the shortfall. If you correct the mistake within two years and file IRS Form 5329, the penalty drops to 10%. In some cases, the IRS will waive the penalty entirely for a documented, reasonable cause.

SECURE 2.0 reduced what was historically a brutal 50% penalty. But 25% is still significant, and missed RMDs typically happen for avoidable reasons: forgetting an old 401(k), missing a TSP balance, assuming an annuity satisfied the RMD when it didn’t, or losing track in the year a spouse passes away.

Practical safeguard: Set a recurring November calendar reminder to confirm every pre-tax account has had its RMD distributed before year-end.

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How Do RMDs Affect Taxes, Medicare, and Social Security?

RMDs are taxed as ordinary income and can push retirees into higher federal brackets, trigger IRMAA Medicare surcharges, increase the taxable portion of Social Security, and reduce eligibility for income-based state tax benefits.

The compounding effect is what surprises most retirees. A single dollar of additional RMD income can:

• Push you into a higher marginal tax bracket
• Cross an IRMAA threshold and raise next year’s Medicare premiums
• Increase the taxable portion of your Social Security benefit (up to 85%)
• Phase you out of state tax credits or pension exclusions
• Affect the cost of ACA coverage if you’re under 65 and a spouse is also under 65

This is why RMDs should never be viewed in isolation from the rest of your retirement income.

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How Do RMDs Affect Maryland Retirees Specifically?

Maryland exempts most Social Security from state tax and offers a pension exclusion plus a senior tax credit — but RMD income can reduce or eliminate these benefits if it pushes your income above certain thresholds.

Three Maryland-specific interactions worth knowing:

1. Pension exclusion. Maryland allows retirees age 65+ (or disabled) to exclude a portion of qualifying retirement income from state tax. IRA distributions generally qualify, but the exclusion amount is reduced dollar-for-dollar by Social Security received.
2. Senior tax credit. Maryland offers a refundable senior tax credit for residents 65+ below specific income thresholds. Large RMDs can push retirees over the threshold and eliminate the credit entirely.
3. Two-income subtraction. For married couples filing jointly, Maryland’s two-income subtraction can reduce taxable income — but only if both spouses have earned or qualifying income, which becomes less common once both are fully retired and living on RMDs and Social Security.

For Annapolis-area federal retirees, the combination of a CSRS or FERS annuity, TSP RMDs, and Social Security often creates a three-layer income stack that interacts with all three Maryland provisions at once.

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What Are the Best Strategies to Reduce Lifetime Taxes on RMDs?

The most effective RMD planning happens before RMDs begin. The biggest levers are pre-RMD Roth conversions, Qualified Charitable Distributions after age 70½, withdrawal sequencing, and coordinating RMD years with Social Security timing.

1. Roth Conversions in Your 60s

The window between retirement (or partial retirement) and age 73 is often the lowest-tax window of a retiree’s life. Converting traditional IRA dollars to Roth during these years — paying tax at 12% or 22% brackets — can dramatically shrink the pre-tax balance that drives future RMDs.

Example: A married couple retired at 62 with $2.4M in pre-tax IRAs. Without planning, their RMDs at age 73 would have exceeded $150,000 per year, stacking on top of Social Security and pension income. By converting $80,000–$120,000 per year to Roth in their 60s — staying within the 22% bracket — they cut their projected RMDs nearly in half and reduced lifetime taxes by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

2. Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)

Beginning at age 70½, you can direct up to $111,000 (2026 amount) per year from your IRA directly to a qualified charity. The distribution counts toward your RMD but doesn’t appear in your taxable income.

QCDs are especially valuable for retirees who:

• Take the standard deduction (so itemized charitable deductions don’t help)
• Are close to an IRMAA threshold
• Want to give to charity from required income they don’t otherwise need

3. Strategic Withdrawal Sequencing

The default advice — “spend taxable, then traditional, then Roth” — often produces more lifetime tax than a blended strategy. Drawing modestly from pre-tax accounts in your 60s can prevent the much larger forced withdrawals of your 80s.

4. Coordinating With Social Security Timing

Delaying Social Security to age 70 maximizes the benefit but also concentrates income into your 70s. Pairing that decision with intentional pre-73 Roth conversions can prevent a tax spike when both Social Security and RMDs hit at once.

5. Planning for the Surviving Spouse

When one spouse dies, the survivor typically files as Single — with narrower tax brackets and a lower IRMAA threshold. The same RMD that was manageable for a married couple can become punitive for the survivor. This “widow’s penalty” is one of the strongest arguments for front-loading Roth conversions while both spouses are alive.

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What Should You Do Next?

If you’re within 10 years of your RMD age, the most useful thing you can do now is map your projected RMDs against your other income sources from today through age 85. That single exercise tends to reveal whether you have a Roth conversion opportunity, an IRMAA risk, or a widow’s penalty exposure you didn’t know about.

Three concrete next steps:

1. List every pre-tax retirement account you and your spouse own, including old 401(k)s and TSP balances. Total the December 31 balances.
2. Estimate your RMD at age 73 by dividing the total by 26.5 (the approximate Uniform Lifetime divisor at that age). Then re-run the math at age 80 using a divisor near 20.
3. Compare that projected RMD income against your other expected income (Social Security, pensions, annuities) and your current marginal tax bracket. If the projected combined income is meaningfully higher than today’s, you likely have a planning window worth exploring.

If you’d like help building a coordinated retirement income and tax plan — one that integrates RMDs with Social Security, Roth conversions, Maryland-specific tax provisions, and long-term withdrawal sequencing — we’d be glad to walk through it with you.