RMD Age 73 and 75: Required Beginning Date Rules After SECURE 2.0

For decades the answer was 70 and a half. The SECURE Act moved it to 72 in 2020. SECURE 2.0 moved it to 73 in 2023 and will move it to 75 in 2033. A retiree who learned the rule once may have learned it wrong twice since.

Missing your first RMD triggers the excise tax in IRC 4974. Getting the start date right is the cheapest way to avoid it.

The applicable age by birth year

IRC 401(a)(9)(C) ties the required beginning date to the "applicable age." Under SECURE 2.0, the applicable age is 73 for people who reach age 72 after December 31, 2022, and age 73 before January 1, 2033. It is 75 for people who reach age 74 after December 31, 2032.

The statute's wording created a drafting overlap for people born in 1959, who technically fit both the 73 and 75 descriptions. Proposed regulations issued by the Treasury in 2024 resolve it by treating 1959 births as age 73. If you were born in 1959, plan for 73 unless final guidance says otherwise.

The required beginning date

Your first RMD is for the year you reach your applicable age. But you do not have to take it until April 1 of the following year. That April 1 date is your required beginning date. Every later RMD is due by December 31 of its year.

Here is the part most people miss. If you use the April 1 extension, you take two RMDs in the same calendar year: last year's by April 1 and this year's by December 31. Both are taxable in that year. For many retirees, doubling up pushes income into a higher bracket and makes more Social Security taxable under IRC 86. Taking the first RMD in the year you reach your applicable age is often cheaper, even though the law lets you wait.

The IRS's own example: if you reach 73 in 2024, your first RMD is due by April 1, 2025, and your second by December 31, 2025.

The still-working exception

For employer plans such as a 401(k), the plan may let you delay RMDs from that plan until April 1 of the year after you retire, if you are still working for the employer. Two limits:

• Five percent owners do not qualify. If you own more than 5 percent of the business sponsoring the plan, the regular applicable age rule applies.
• IRAs do not qualify. Traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs require RMDs starting at your applicable age even if you are still working.

Plans of former employers do not qualify either. The exception applies to the plan of the employer you are working for.

Roth accounts

Roth IRAs have never required lifetime RMDs for the original owner. Starting in 2024, SECURE 2.0 extended that to designated Roth accounts in employer plans, such as Roth 401(k)s, so the original owner no longer has to take RMDs from them. Beneficiaries who inherit Roth accounts do have distribution requirements. See the inherited IRA 10-year rule.

How the amount is figured

For most retirees, the RMD is the account balance at the end of the prior year divided by a distribution period from the Uniform Lifetime Table in Treas. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-9. If your sole beneficiary for the whole year is a spouse more than 10 years younger, you use the Joint and Last Survivor Table instead, which produces a smaller RMD. IRS Publication 590-B reproduces the tables and has worksheets.

For IRAs, compute each account's RMD separately, then take the total from any one or more IRAs. 403(b) contracts can be aggregated the same way among themselves. 401(k) and 457(b) RMDs must be taken separately from each plan.

A timeline example

Take a retiree in Gulfport born in March 1953. He reaches 73 in 2026, so 2026 is his first RMD year. The amount is based on his IRA balances on December 31, 2025, and the Uniform Lifetime Table factor for age 73. He can take it any time in 2026, or as late as April 1, 2027. If he waits until March 2027, he must also take his 2027 RMD by December 31, 2027, based on the December 31, 2026 balance. Two RMDs, one tax year. If his pension and Social Security already put him near the top of a bracket, taking the first one in 2026 is usually the better choice.

RMDs while you owe the IRS

An IRS balance does not change the RMD rules. Retirees in collection sometimes skip RMDs to keep income down, thinking it helps their case. It does not. It adds a 25 percent excise tax and makes the account look like an available asset the taxpayer is not using. Take the RMD, have enough withheld to cover its tax, and include the distribution as income on any financial statement you give the IRS. If you depend on it for living expenses, say so; that matters in how the IRS treats the account. See can the IRS levy your IRA in Florida?

If you were born before 1951

Your RMDs started under earlier law, at 70 and a half or 72, and the SECURE 2.0 changes did not restart them. Keep taking annual RMDs by December 31. If you stopped because you heard the age went up, you may have missed distributions, and the fix is in the missed RMD penalty.

Two special cases

If you own a 403(b) contract with amounts that were in it before 1987, those pre-1987 balances may follow a later required beginning date; the IRS's RMD guidance refers to age 75 for certain pre-1987 403(b) amounts. Your 403(b) provider tracks the pre-1987 balance separately and can tell you whether it applies.

If you bought a qualifying longevity annuity contract (QLAC) inside an IRA or plan, its value is excluded from the balance used to figure your RMD until annuity payments begin. The premium limit is indexed; according to IRS Notice 2025-67, it remains $210,000 for 2026. A QLAC reduces RMDs now in exchange for lifetime income that starts later, which can help retirees manage the tax on required distributions.

RMDs and other money moves

• RMDs cannot be rolled over. IRC 408(d)(3)(E) excludes them. In an RMD year, the first dollars out of an IRA are treated as the RMD, so roll over only amounts above it. See failed 60-day rollovers.
• Roth conversions do not satisfy RMDs. Take the RMD first, then convert.
• Qualified charitable distributions do count toward your RMD if you are 70 and a half or older. See QCDs and RMDs.

Withholding on RMDs

RMDs from IRAs are typically nonperiodic distributions with 10 percent default withholding, which you can change on Form W-4R. Many Pinellas retirees use the RMD as the vehicle for all their federal withholding for the year, because withholding is treated as paid evenly through the year for estimated tax purposes under IRC 6654(g). See withholding on pensions and IRAs.

If you already missed the first one

Take it now, then file Form 5329. The excise tax under section 4974 is 25 percent of the shortfall, reduced to 10 percent if corrected within the window in 4974(e), and the IRS can waive it for reasonable error under 4974(d). Confusion caused by the changing ages is the kind of explanation that fits. See how to request an RMD penalty waiver.

Next step

Find your birth year in the table, mark your first RMD year and your April 1 deadline, and decide whether to take the first RMD early to avoid doubling up. If a missed RMD has already turned into an IRS notice, call (813) 229-7100. The firm's tax planning page covers how to schedule distributions to keep the tax bill even.