Does a QCD lower the tax on my RMD?

Yes. A qualified charitable distribution, paid by your IRA custodian directly to a charity once you are 70½, counts toward your RMD and is left out of your income, up to $111,000 per IRA owner in 2026 (IRS Notice 2025-67). In the example, $10,000 sent as a QCD instead of taken as income cuts the year’s tax by $2,481. You cannot also deduct the gift.

What are the RMD rules for 2026?

RMDs start at 73 if you were born 1951 to 1959 and at 75 if born in 1960 or later (26 CFR §1.401(a)(9)-2). Each is due by December 31, except the first, which may wait until April 1 of the next year. The amount comes from the Uniform Lifetime Table, or Table II for a spouse more than 10 years younger. IRA RMDs can be taken from any of your IRAs; each 401(k)’s comes from that plan. A current employer’s plan can wait until you retire unless you own more than 5%. QCDs count toward the RMD. Roth IRAs, and from 2024 designated Roth 401(k)s, have none during your life. A missed RMD costs 25% of the shortfall, 10% if corrected in time (IRC §4974).

By December 31 of the year it is for. The one exception is your first RMD, for the year you reach your start age, which may wait until April 1 of the following year. Waiting puts two RMDs in that following year, because the second one is still due by December 31 and is figured on a balance the delayed withdrawal did not reduce.

Do I have to take an RMD this year?

Only once you reach your start age: 73 if you were born 1951 to 1959 and 75 if you were born 1960 or later, under SECURE 2.0. Anyone born in 1950 or earlier is already taking RMDs. The calculator answers this from your age or date of birth.

Is the RMD divisor different for 2027?

No. The Uniform Lifetime Table is set by regulation and has applied unchanged to every distribution year since 2022, so the 2027 divisors are the same as the 2026 ones. Your RMD changes because your age and your balance change. The 2027 RMD table lists them.

What if my spouse is more than 10 years younger?

If your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, the Uniform Lifetime Table does not apply. Your divisor comes from Table II, the Joint and Last Survivor table in IRS Publication 590-B, where your age and your spouse’s age intersect. Enter that divisor in the calculator to get the amount.

RMD Calculator 2026

Your required minimum distribution is your account balance on December 31 of last year divided by the IRS divisor for the age you reach this year. At 75 with $500,000, the 2026 RMD is $20,325 (divisor 24.6, 4.07% of the balance), from the Uniform Lifetime Table in IRS Publication 590-B.

Enter your age or date of birth and your balance: you get the amount, the deadline, whether you owe one yet, and the next ten years at a growth rate you choose.

How much tax will I pay on my RMD in 2026?

Your required minimum distribution is taxed as ordinary income in the year you take it, at your top federal bracket, plus your state’s rate, and it can make more of your Social Security taxable. Example: a single 75-year-old in North Carolina with $30,000 of Social Security, a $12,000 pension and $500,000 in an IRA on December 31, 2025 must take $20,325 in 2026. That RMD adds $2,635 of federal tax and $781 of North Carolina tax: $3,416, or 16.8% of the RMD, partly because it makes $14,826 more of the Social Security taxable. Sending $10,000 of it straight to a charity as a qualified charitable distribution (QCD) cuts that tax by $2,481.

The worked example, computed by the tax engine: single, age 75, North Carolina, $30,000 Social Security, $12,000 pension, $500,000 IRA balance on 12/31/2025.
Key number	2026
2026 RMD (balance ÷ 24.6) (Uniform Lifetime Table)	$20,325
Federal tax the RMD adds (Rev. Proc. 2025-32)	$2,635
North Carolina tax the RMD adds (NC rules)	$781
Federal + state tax on the RMD	$3,416
Tax as a share of the RMD	16.8%
Social Security the RMD makes taxable (Pub. 915)	$14,826
Tax cut by a $10,000 QCD instead (Pub. 590-B)	$2,481
IRMAA MAGI with the RMD (sets 2028 premiums) (CMS 2026 tiers)	$48,152
More IRA money before the first IRMAA tier	$51,174

An estimate from QuantCalc’s open tax engine (federal 2.3.2, state 1.14.2) for the 2026 tax year. Not tax advice: your return depends on facts this page does not ask about, so check a move with your tax preparer or custodian before acting. IRMAA uses the 2026 tiers: the 2028 tiers this MAGI is measured against are not published yet, and indexed tiers will be higher. How the engine computes each line, with its official source: federal, state.

Run it on your own numbers in the calculator below: enter your balance and age, then your filing status, state and other income under “The tax on your RMD”.

Calculate your required minimum distribution

I’ll enter my age I’ll enter my date of birth

Distribution year The year the RMD is for Your age on Dec 31, 2026 The age you reach this year Balance on Dec 31, 2025 ($) Traditional IRA or 401(k), pre-tax Assumed growth for the projection (%) An assumption, not a forecast Years to project

My spouse is my sole beneficiary and is more than 10 years younger than me

The tax on your RMD

Your RMD is income for 2026. Add the rest of your year and the tax engine shows what the RMD adds to your federal and state tax and to your IRMAA MAGI, and what a QCD would take off.

Filing status State Social Security received in 2026 ($) Gross benefits, before Medicare premiums Pension or annuity ($) Other IRA withdrawals or conversions ($) Beyond this RMD, in 2026 Part of the RMD sent as a QCD ($) Paid by the custodian straight to a charity

An estimate from QuantCalc’s open tax engine (federal 2.3.2, state 1.14.2) for the 2026 tax year. Not tax advice: your return depends on facts this page does not ask about, so check a move with your tax preparer or custodian before acting. How the engine computes each line, with its official source: federal, state.

Paid tool Every RMD is the balance divided by a shrinking divisor, so the only lever you hold is the balance — and the years before and between RMDs are when you can still move it. The Roth Conversion Planner lays out that decision year by year to your plan end age: how much to convert each year, the federal and state tax it costs, the RMDs that are left afterwards, and the IRMAA tier each year’s MAGI sets two years later — set beside the same years with no conversions at all, and downloadable as a PDF you keep. A planning tool, not advice: the numbers move when your assumptions do. Plan my RMDs and conversions — Personal PRO ($49) → See what is included, and price this year free, first →

See your RMDs, taxes and IRMAA across your whole retirement — free →

How do I calculate my RMD?

Divide the account’s balance on December 31 of last year by the IRS divisor for the age you reach this year, then add the result to this year’s income. Worked through for a single 75-year-old in North Carolina with $500,000 in an IRA, $30,000 of Social Security and a $12,000 pension:

Find the balance. Use the value on your December 31, 2025 statement: $500,000. Each traditional IRA, and each 401(k) or other workplace plan, has its own balance and its own RMD.
Find the divisor. Look up the age you reach in 2026 in the Uniform Lifetime Table (26 CFR §1.401(a)(9)-9(c); the 2026 RMD table lists every age): at 75 it is 24.6. If your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, use Table II instead (Joint and Last Survivor table).
Divide. $500,000 ÷ 24.6 = $20,325, 4.07% of the balance. Withdraw at least that, rounded up to the cent, by December 31, 2026.
Add it up across accounts. IRA RMDs can be totalled and taken from any one or more of your IRAs; a 401(k)’s RMD must come from that plan (IRS RMD FAQs).
Work out the tax. The RMD is ordinary income. Here it adds $2,635 of federal and $781 of North Carolina tax: $3,416, 16.8% of the RMD, so $16,909 is left. Enter your own numbers under “The tax on your RMD” above.

The calculator reads the divisors from the same table the QuantCalc retirement engine runs on, and shows the amount rounded up to the cent, because withdrawing even a few cents less than the exact quotient leaves part of the minimum undistributed.

Research: how much tax a 2026 RMD really adds, and why it often runs above the bracket: 64 retiree cases, federal and every state.

RMD rules for 2026

Start age. 73 if you were born 1951 to 1959, 75 if you were born in 1960 or later, under SECURE 2.0 (26 CFR §1.401(a)(9)-2).
Deadline. December 31 each year. Only the first RMD may wait until April 1 of the next year, which puts two RMDs in that year (IRS: required minimum distributions; first RMD: December or April 1?).
Which table. The Uniform Lifetime Table (IRS table), or Table II if your spouse is the sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger (26 CFR §1.401(a)(9)-9(d)). The divisors are the same in 2026 and 2027.
IRAs versus 401(k)s. Figure each IRA’s RMD and take the total from any of them; each 401(k) or 457(b) plan’s RMD comes from that plan (IRS RMD FAQs).
Still working. A current employer’s plan can let you wait until you retire, unless you own more than 5% of the business; the exception never applies to IRAs (IRC §401(a)(9)(C)).
QCDs count. A qualified charitable distribution from age 70½ counts toward the RMD and stays out of income, up to $111,000 in 2026 (IRS Notice 2025-67; QCD calculator).
Roth accounts. No RMDs from a Roth IRA during the owner’s life (IRC §408A(c)(4)), and none from a designated Roth 401(k) or 403(b) account from 2024 (IRC §402A(d)(5)).
Missing one. The shortfall carries a 25% excise tax, 10% if corrected in time (IRC §4974).
Inherited accounts follow different rules (the 10-year rule and the Single Life Table): see the inherited IRA RMD calculator.

Deadlines: December 31, and April 1 in the first year

Each RMD is due by December 31 of the year it is for. The exception is the first one, for the year you reach your start age: you may take it as late as April 1 of the next year, your required beginning date (IRS Publication 590-B). If you wait, the next year carries two RMDs — the delayed first by April 1 and the second by December 31 — and the second is still figured on the full December 31 balance, because a withdrawal made after December 31 does not reduce it. The calculator shows that two-RMD total whenever you are in your first RMD year.

A missed or short RMD can cost an excise tax of 25% of the shortfall, reduced to 10% if you correct it in time, per Publication 590-B (“Excess Accumulations”).

When RMDs start

Under SECURE 2.0 your start age is 73 if you were born from 1951 to 1959 and 75 if you were born in 1960 or later (26 CFR §1.401(a)(9)-2(b)(2)); anyone born in 1950 or earlier is already taking them. The final regulation leaves birth year 1959 marked “reserved”, so 73 for 1959 is the proposed rule’s answer rather than settled law. For the year-by-birth-year detail, use the RMD age calculator; for the April 1 decision on its own, see your first RMD deadline.

Spouse more than 10 years younger

If your spouse is the sole beneficiary of the account for the whole year and is more than 10 years younger than you, the Uniform Lifetime Table does not apply. Your divisor comes from Table II (Joint and Last Survivor Life Expectancy) of IRS Publication 590-B, where your age and your spouse’s age in the distribution year meet. This page does not carry Table II; tick the box above, enter the divisor you find there, and the calculator does the rest.

Common questions

How do I calculate my RMD?: Divide your account balance on December 31 of last year by the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table divisor for the age you reach this year. At 75 the divisor is 24.6, so a $500,000 balance gives a 2026 RMD of $20,325, about 4.07% of the balance (IRS Publication 590-B).
How much tax will I pay on my RMD in 2026?: It is ordinary income, taxed at your top bracket plus your state’s rate, and it can make more of your Social Security taxable. A single 75-year-old in North Carolina with $30,000 of Social Security and a $12,000 pension pays $2,635 of federal and $781 of state tax on a $20,325 RMD: $3,416, 16.8% of it. Enter your own numbers under “The tax on your RMD” for yours.
Does a QCD lower the tax on my RMD?: Yes. A qualified charitable distribution, paid by your IRA custodian directly to a charity once you are 70½, counts toward your RMD and is left out of your income, up to $111,000 per IRA owner in 2026 (IRS Notice 2025-67). In the example, $10,000 sent as a QCD instead of taken as income cuts the year’s tax by $2,481. You cannot also deduct the gift.
What are the RMD rules for 2026?: RMDs start at 73 if you were born 1951 to 1959 and at 75 if born in 1960 or later (26 CFR §1.401(a)(9)-2). Each is due by December 31, except the first, which may wait until April 1 of the next year. The amount comes from the Uniform Lifetime Table, or Table II for a spouse more than 10 years younger. IRA RMDs can be taken from any of your IRAs; each 401(k)’s comes from that plan. A current employer’s plan can wait until you retire unless you own more than 5%. QCDs count toward the RMD. Roth IRAs, and from 2024 designated Roth 401(k)s, have none during your life. A missed RMD costs 25% of the shortfall, 10% if corrected in time (IRC §4974).
When is my RMD due?: By December 31 of the year it is for. The one exception is your first RMD, for the year you reach your start age, which may wait until April 1 of the following year. Waiting puts two RMDs in that following year, because the second one is still due by December 31 and is figured on a balance the delayed withdrawal did not reduce.
Do I have to take an RMD this year?: Only once you reach your start age: 73 if you were born 1951 to 1959 and 75 if you were born 1960 or later, under SECURE 2.0. Anyone born in 1950 or earlier is already taking RMDs. The calculator answers this from your age or date of birth.
Is the RMD divisor different for 2027?: No. The Uniform Lifetime Table is set by regulation and has applied unchanged to every distribution year since 2022, so the 2027 divisors are the same as the 2026 ones. Your RMD changes because your age and your balance change. The 2027 RMD table lists them.
What if my spouse is more than 10 years younger?: If your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, the Uniform Lifetime Table does not apply. Your divisor comes from Table II, the Joint and Last Survivor table in IRS Publication 590-B, where your age and your spouse’s age intersect. Enter that divisor in the calculator to get the amount.

Sources: IRS Publication 590-B, 26 CFR §1.401(a)(9)-9 and §1.401(a)(9)-2, checked 2026-09-23. QuantCalc is calculation software for education and planning, not tax or financial advice. Confirm your figure with your account custodian.