Required Minimum Distribution Deadlines: April 1, December 31, and the Two-RMD Year
As of October 2026, the rule that catches most retirees off guard is not how much they have to withdraw. It is when. Required minimum distributions run on two different deadlines that look similar on paper and behave very differently in practice: one is a one-time grace period, the other is a hard annual cutoff. Mixing them up is how people end up reporting two years of withdrawals on a single tax return, or paying an excise tax on money they fully intended to take out.
This is a calendar problem more than a math problem. Below is what the IRS actually requires, which accounts can be lumped together and which cannot, and what to do if a deadline has already slipped past.
Two deadlines, not one
The IRS says you generally have to start taking withdrawals from your IRA, SIMPLE IRA, SEP IRA, or retirement plan account when you reach age 73. That single sentence hides a two-part schedule.
The first distribution has a required beginning date of April 1 of the year following the calendar year in which you reach age 73. That April 1 is a one-time courtesy. It applies to your first RMD and to nothing else.
Every distribution after that is due by December 31 of its own year. There is no April grace period for the second one, the third one, or the fifteenth one. The IRS illustrates it with a plain example: someone who reaches 73 in 2024 has a first RMD due by April 1, 2025, and a second RMD by December 31, 2025.
| Which distribution | Deadline |
|---|---|
| The first one, for the year you turn 73 | April 1 of the following year |
| Every year after that | December 31 of that same year |
Source: IRS, retrieved October 2026
If you turn 73 this year, you are standing at a fork right now. You can take the first distribution before December 31, 2026, or you can push it to April 1, 2027. The next section is about why that choice is rarely as free as it looks.
The first-year trap: two RMDs in one tax year
Deferring the first RMD does not cancel the second one. The second distribution still carries its own December 31 deadline in the same calendar year the deferred first one lands in. Take the IRS example literally: a first RMD paid on April 1, 2025, and a second RMD paid by December 31, 2025, are both 2025 distributions. Both are reported on the same return.
For a retiree whose taxable income is otherwise flat, doubling up in one year can do several things at once. It can push part of the withdrawal into a higher marginal bracket. It can change how much of a Social Security benefit is taxable. It can raise modified adjusted gross income in a year that later feeds into Medicare premium surcharges, which are calculated from a tax return filed two years earlier.
Related: Medicare Part B Premium 2026: Why Yours Isn't $202.90
None of that makes deferral wrong. There are real reasons to use it: a year with unusually high income from a property sale, a final year of wages, a large one-off deduction that you would rather offset. The point is that April 1 is a timing tool with a cost attached, not a free extension. If nothing unusual is happening, taking the first distribution in the year you turn 73 keeps one withdrawal in each tax year and keeps the arithmetic boring.
What you can add together — and what you cannot
This is the detail that trips up people who have accumulated accounts across several employers. The IRS treats IRAs and workplace plans differently.
For IRAs, you calculate the required amount separately for each IRA you own, but you may take the total from one of them or from any combination of them. The same applies to 403(b) contracts: compute per contract, withdraw from one or several.
For 401(k) and 457(b) plans, there is no such flexibility. The required amount must be taken separately from each of those plan accounts. Three old 401(k) accounts left with three former employers means three separate withdrawals, each from its own plan, each by the deadline. Satisfying the total from one of them does not count.
Adding up every retirement account, computing one grand total, and pulling it all from the largest IRA. That works for the IRA side. It leaves every old 401(k) short, and each shortfall is its own problem.
This is also the practical argument for consolidating old workplace accounts into a single IRA before the first required year rather than after it. One account is one calculation and one withdrawal. Five accounts spread across two plan types are five chances to miss a deadline.
Related: Best IRA Accounts for Retirement: A Complete 2025 Guide
Accounts with no lifetime RMD
Not every retirement dollar is on this clock. Roth IRA owners are not subject to required minimum distributions during their lifetime; the IRS describes those withdrawals as not required until after the death of the account owner. The same treatment applies to designated Roth accounts inside a workplace plan.
Beneficiaries are a different matter. Inherited accounts, Roth included, come with their own distribution rules, and those rules are not what this article covers. If you have inherited an account rather than contributed to it, treat everything above as background and look up the beneficiary rules specifically.
The planning consequence for an account owner is simple enough: the Roth side of a portfolio can be left alone while the pre-tax side is being drained on schedule. That asymmetry is worth knowing about before the first required year, not during it.
The still-working exception
Participants in a workplace plan — a 401(k), for instance — can delay required distributions until the year they retire, unless they are a 5% owner of the business sponsoring the plan. For defined contribution plans, the IRS frames the required beginning date as April 1 following the later of the year you reach 73 or the year you retire.
Two limits matter here. First, the exception belongs to the plan you are still working for. An old 401(k) at a previous employer does not get the delay just because you have a job somewhere else. Second, it never reaches IRAs: the IRS states plainly that traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRA owners must begin taking distributions at 73 whether or not they are retired.
If you are past 73 and still employed, the question to ask your plan administrator is narrow and answerable: does this plan permit the still-working delay, and am I classified as a 5% owner? Both answers come from the plan, not from a general rule.
How the number is calculated
The mechanics are a single division. Take the account balance as of the end of the immediately preceding calendar year and divide it by a distribution period from the IRS life expectancy tables. Most account owners use the Uniform Lifetime Table, which the IRS describes as the table for unmarried IRA owners calculating their own withdrawals. The tables live in IRS Publication 590-B.
Publication 590-B gives the applicable denominator for age 73 as 26.5, and for age 75 as 24.6. Two things follow from those two numbers.
| Age | Denominator | On a $500,000 prior-year balance |
|---|---|---|
| 73 | 26.5 | about $18,868 |
| 75 | 24.6 | about $20,325 |
Denominators: IRS Publication 590-B, Table III (Uniform Lifetime). Dollar figures are arithmetic on a hypothetical balance, not IRS figures.
First, the denominator shrinks every year, so the required percentage of the account climbs as you age even if the balance stays flat. Second, the balance that drives this year's number was fixed on December 31 of last year. A market drop in June does not reduce the amount you owe for the current year. That is why a withdrawal taken early in the year and a withdrawal taken on December 29 are the same required dollar amount, computed from the same frozen balance.
A practical consequence: if you take the distribution in kind, or you want to sell specific holdings to fund it, the planning window is the whole year. The deadline is the end of it.
If you already missed one
A missed RMD is a fixable problem, and the fix is specific. The excise tax on the amount that should have been distributed is 25%, reduced to 10% if the shortfall is timely corrected within two years. The form used to report it is Form 5329.
- Work out the exact shortfall for the year that was missed, using that year's prior-December-31 balance and that year's denominator.
- Take the make-up distribution from the right account — remember the 401(k) and 457(b) accounts stand alone.
- File Form 5329 for the year of the shortfall.
- Do it inside the two-year correction window, which is what drops the rate from 25% to 10%.
The thing not to do is nothing. The excise tax attaches to the amount that was not distributed as required, and waiting does not make the shortfall smaller — it just moves you out of the window that cuts the rate.
A December checklist
Most RMD failures are administrative rather than financial. The money is there; the paperwork did not happen in time. A short run-through in early December catches nearly all of it.
- List every pre-tax retirement account you hold, including old employer plans you have not logged into in years.
- Confirm which are IRAs (aggregate and withdraw flexibly) and which are 401(k) or 457(b) accounts (withdraw from each separately).
- Check each custodian's cutoff for processing a distribution — their internal deadline is earlier than December 31, and a trade that settles in January does not help.
- Confirm the withholding election on each distribution, so the tax side is handled at the same time.
- If this is your first required year, decide deliberately between taking it now and deferring to April 1 — and write down why.
If you are turning 73 this year, the one decision worth making on purpose is that last one. Everything else on the list is just confirming that a withdrawal you already intended actually left the account before the year ended.
FAQ
At what age do required minimum distributions start?
The IRS states that you generally have to start taking withdrawals from your IRA, SIMPLE IRA, SEP IRA, or retirement plan account when you reach age 73.
Is the deadline April 1 or December 31?
Both, for different distributions. The first RMD can be delayed until April 1 of the year following the calendar year in which you reach age 73. Every RMD after that is due by December 31 of its own year.
Why would delaying my first RMD mean two withdrawals in one year?
Because the second RMD keeps its own December 31 deadline. The IRS example: reaching 73 in 2024 means a first RMD due by April 1, 2025 and a second RMD by December 31, 2025 — both in the same tax year.
Can I take my total RMD from just one account?
For IRAs, yes: you calculate separately for each IRA but may take the total from one or more of them. For 401(k) and 457(b) plans, no — the RMD must be taken separately from each of those plan accounts.
Do Roth accounts have required minimum distributions?
Not for the owner during their lifetime. The IRS describes withdrawals from Roth IRAs and designated Roth accounts as not required until after the death of the account owner. Beneficiaries are subject to separate rules.
What happens if I miss an RMD?
The excise tax is 25% of the amount that should have been distributed, reduced to 10% if the RMD is timely corrected within two years. It is reported on Form 5329.
Further Reading
- Retirement Investment Strategies: Building Wealth for a Secure Future
- Social Security COLA 2027: The Formula and the 317.265 Base
- Medicare Part B Premium 2026: Why Yours Isn't $202.90
Sources
IRS · Retirement plan and IRA required minimum distributions FAQs
IRS · Retirement topics — Required minimum distributions (RMDs)
IRS · Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
This article is for general information only and is not financial, tax, or legal advice. Rules change — verify with the official sources linked above or consult a licensed professional before acting.