Required minimum distributions used to kick in at one age for everyone. Not anymore. Thanks to two rounds of federal legislation, the age you're required to start pulling money out of a traditional IRA or 401(k) now depends entirely on the year you were born, and it isn't 72 anymore for anyone. Get the wrong age in your head and you either withdraw money a year or two too early, giving up tax-deferred growth you didn't need to give up, or worse, you miss the actual deadline and hand the IRS a penalty for money that was never even yours to keep in the account past that point. Here's exactly which age applies to you, and what the first RMD actually looks like in real dollars.
The Birth-Year Rule That Actually Decides It
Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, your RMD starting age is set entirely by your birth year, not by some universal milestone. There are three groups:
- Born in 1950 or earlier: You were already required to be taking RMDs under the older rules (age 72 or 70½, depending on your exact birth year). If that's you, this isn't news, you're already in the system.
- Born between 1951 and 1959: Your RMD age is 73. You must take your first RMD by April 1 of the year after you turn 73.
- Born in 1960 or later: Your RMD age is 75. You get two additional years of tax-deferred growth before the requirement kicks in at all.
That's the whole rule. If you know your birth year, you know your RMD age. The confusion isn't the rule itself, it's that so much older content online, and even some outdated financial software, still references age 72 as if it universally applies. It hasn't since 2023.
Why There Are Two Different Ages in the First Place
This happened in two steps. The original SECURE Act, passed in 2019, raised the RMD age from 70½ to 72. Then SECURE 2.0, passed at the end of 2022, raised it again, but not for everyone at once. It bumped the age to 73 starting in 2023 for people born between 1951 and 1959, and set a further increase to 75 for people born in 1960 or later. The practical effect is a staggered rollout by birth cohort rather than a single new number replacing the old one, which is exactly why you'll see both 73 and 75 mentioned as "the" RMD age depending on which article, which advisor, or which software you're looking at. Both are correct, just for different people.
The Worked Example: What Your First RMD Actually Looks Like
Your RMD isn't a flat percentage. It's your account balance as of December 31 of the prior year, divided by a life expectancy factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table that corresponds to your age. The factor gets smaller as you get older, since the IRS assumes fewer years remain to spread the withdrawals across.
Say you have $500,000 in a traditional IRA at the end of the prior year:
- If your RMD age is 73, the table factor is 26.5. Your RMD is $500,000 ÷ 26.5 = $18,867.92, about 3.77% of the balance.
- If your RMD age is 75, the table factor is 24.6. Your RMD is $500,000 ÷ 24.6 = $20,325.20, about 4.07% of the balance.
Notice the trade-off. Waiting until 75 gets you two extra years of the account growing untouched, but once RMDs start, the required percentage is higher than it would have been at 73, because the IRS's life expectancy factor keeps shrinking every year you age. Deferral isn't free money, it's a trade of more growth time against a bigger required slice later.
The Double-RMD Trap in Your First Year
The IRS gives you a grace period on your very first RMD only: you can delay it until April 1 of the year after you hit your RMD age, instead of taking it by December 31 like every year after. That sounds like a bonus, but it can backfire.
Say you turn 73 in 2026 and have a $400,000 IRA balance at the end of 2025. Your first RMD, calculated with the age-73 factor of 26.5, is $400,000 ÷ 26.5 = $15,094.34. You choose to wait and take it in early 2027 instead of by the end of 2026. But your second RMD, for 2027, is still due by December 31, 2027, calculated on your new age-74 factor of 25.5 against your account balance at the end of 2026. If that balance grew to $410,000, your second RMD is $410,000 ÷ 25.5 = $16,078.43.
Take both the delayed first RMD and the regular second RMD in the same calendar year, and you've just added roughly $31,172 of taxable ordinary income to a single tax return instead of spreading it across two. That can push you into a higher marginal bracket, increase how much of your Social Security benefit is taxable, or trigger higher Medicare premiums through IRMAA, all from a timing choice rather than an actual change in what you own. For most people, taking the first RMD in the same year you turn your RMD age, rather than delaying to the following spring, avoids this entirely.
Which Accounts This Applies To, and the One That Doesn't
RMDs apply to traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, and traditional 401(k), 403(b), and most other employer retirement plans. Two notable exceptions:
- Roth IRAs have never had RMDs for the original account owner, at any age. The money went in after tax, so the IRS has no reason to force withdrawals during your lifetime.
- Roth 401(k) and Roth 403(b) accounts used to have RMDs, unlike Roth IRAs, which caught a lot of people off guard. SECURE 2.0 eliminated that inconsistency starting in 2024. Roth dollars inside an employer plan are no longer subject to RMDs during your life, matching how Roth IRAs already worked.
If you're weighing whether to keep money in a traditional account or move it toward Roth, this is one more piece of that decision, since it affects how much control you keep over your own withdrawal timing later in retirement.
The Penalty If You Miss It
Missing an RMD, or taking less than required, triggers an excise tax under IRC §4974. SECURE 2.0 lowered this from the old 50% penalty to 25% of the amount you should have withdrawn but didn't. If you catch and correct the mistake within two years, that penalty drops further to 10%. On a missed $18,867.92 RMD, that's a $4,716.98 penalty at the 25% rate, or $1,886.79 if corrected within the two-year window. Either way, it's on top of the ordinary income tax you still owe once you do withdraw the money, so it's strictly a penalty, not a substitute for the tax.
What to Actually Do With This
- Know your exact birth-year bracket. 1950 or earlier means you're already required, 1951 to 1959 means 73, 1960 or later means 75.
- Think twice before delaying your first RMD to the following April. It can stack two taxable distributions into one calendar year and push you into a higher bracket.
- Check whether your accounts are Roth or traditional. Roth IRAs and, since 2024, Roth 401(k)s are exempt from lifetime RMDs entirely.
- Set a calendar reminder well before December 31 each year, not just for the deadline, since a missed RMD is a real, calculable penalty on top of the tax you'd owe anyway.
If you're still deciding between a Roth and a traditional account in the first place, our post on Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA: How to Actually Decide walks through that trade-off, and RMD exposure is part of it. And if you're a high earner using a traditional IRA as a stepping stone to a Roth, Backdoor Roth IRA Explained covers a related mechanic worth understanding before you convert.
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Spicy Investing