401(k) Required Minimum Distributions: When RMDs Start and How Much (2026)

401(k) required minimum distributions start at age 73 if you were born 1951–1959, and at 75 if you were born in 1960 or later (SECURE 2.0). Each year’s RMD is your prior December 31 balance divided by an IRS life-expectancy factor. If you’re still working and not a 5% owner, your current employer’s plan may let you delay.

By the About401K editorial team · Facts verified against SECURE 2.0 and IRS RMD guidance · Updated September 24, 2026

When am I required to take RMDs from my 401(k)?

Your first RMD year is the year you turn 73, or 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. You can take that first RMD any time during the year, or push it as late as April 1 of the following year, which the rules call your “required beginning date.”

After that first one, the deadline tightens. Every RMD from then on is due by December 31, with no exceptions and no more April grace period.

RMDs exist because tax deferral was never meant to last forever. Under IRC §401(a)(9), the IRS eventually requires the money to come out so it can finally be taxed. Every pre-tax dollar you withdraw as an RMD counts as ordinary income in the year you receive it. The IRS RMD FAQs lay out the general framework across all plan types.

The two-in-one-year trap: delaying your first RMD

Delaying your first RMD does not push back the second one. If you turn 73 in 2026 and wait until April 1, 2027 to take your first RMD, your second RMD is still due December 31, 2027. Two taxable RMDs land in the same tax year.

That stack of income can do real damage. It can push you into a higher bracket, make more of your Social Security benefit taxable, and raise your Medicare IRMAA surcharges two years later.

Delaying makes sense only when you expect meaningfully lower income in the following year, such as when the first RMD year is also your final year of wages. Otherwise, taking the first RMD in its own year usually produces the smaller total tax bill. Run the numbers both ways before you decide, because this choice is permanent once the deadline passes.

If I’m still working, do I have to take RMDs from my 401(k)?

Often no, and this surprises people who assume age alone forces the issue. It’s called the still-working exception, and all three of these conditions have to be true at once.

• You are still employed by the company that sponsors the plan on December 31 of the year;
• You do not own more than 5% of that company (ownership attribution rules count stakes held by family members toward your total); and
• Your plan has actually adopted the exception. It is optional, and your plan document controls.

The exception covers only your current employer’s plan. 401(k)s left behind at former employers, and all of your traditional IRAs, still require RMDs on the normal schedule no matter how long you keep working. That catches a lot of people who kept working past 73 and assumed they were fully off the hook.

When you do eventually retire, RMDs from that current plan begin for the year you retire, and you get the same April 1 first-year option you would have had at 73.

The RMD formula

The math itself is refreshingly simple. Take your account balance as of December 31 of the prior year and divide it by the life-expectancy factor for your age in the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. The result is the minimum you have to withdraw this year.

The Uniform Lifetime Table covers almost everyone. There is one exception worth knowing. If your sole beneficiary is your spouse and they are more than 10 years younger than you, the Joint Life and Last Survivor table applies instead, and it produces a smaller RMD.

In practice your recordkeeper calculates the amount for you, and most will automate the payment on a monthly, quarterly, or annual schedule. Taking it as one lump sum or in installments is entirely your choice, as long as the year’s total is satisfied by the deadline. Checking their number against your own estimate is still worth the five minutes, because the responsibility for a shortfall lands on you, not on them.

Per-plan calculation rule

401(k) RMDs are calculated and paid plan by plan. If you have three old 401(k) accounts sitting at three former employers, you owe three separate RMDs, one out of each account.

This is the opposite of how IRAs work. With traditional IRAs you total the required amounts across all of them and can take the whole combined figure from any single IRA. That flexibility does not exist for 401(k)s, and you cannot satisfy a 401(k) RMD out of an IRA or out of a different 401(k).

The standard fix is to consolidate old plans into one account before you reach RMD age, using a rollover. One account means one calculation and one deadline to miss instead of three.

Roth 401(k) and RMDs

Starting in 2024, Roth 401(k) accounts have no lifetime RMDs under SECURE 2.0 §325, which finally puts them on the same footing as Roth IRAs. Before that change, Roth 401(k) holders had to either take RMDs or roll the money to a Roth IRA to escape them.

If your plan holds both pre-tax and Roth money, the RMD is computed on the pre-tax balance only. Beneficiaries who inherit a Roth 401(k) do still face post-death distribution rules, which we cover in the guide to inherited 401(k) rules.

Penalty for a missed RMD

Missing an RMD triggers an excise tax of 25% of the shortfall, meaning 25% of whatever you failed to take. That drops to 10% if you correct it within the correction window by taking the missed amount promptly, which generally means by the end of the second year following the miss, or earlier if the IRS assesses the tax first. SECURE 2.0 cut both figures down from the old flat 50%, so anything you read quoting 50% is out of date.

If you discover a missed RMD, the order of operations matters. Take the money out immediately, then report the shortfall on Form 5329 and attach a request for a waiver. The IRS can waive the tax entirely when the miss was a reasonable error and you have already corrected it, and these waivers are granted routinely. Panic is not warranted here, but delay is not your friend either.

RMDs and rollovers

An RMD can never be rolled over. The required amount has to come out and be taxed, and no amount of paperwork changes that.

The sequencing rule catches people out. Each year, the first dollars distributed from the plan count toward that year’s RMD. So if you plan to roll a 401(k) into an IRA during an RMD year, the plan must pay your RMD to you first, and only the amount above it is eligible to roll.

Withholding works differently on the RMD portion too. The mandatory 20% federal withholding does not apply to it, because the RMD isn’t rollover-eligible in the first place. Withholding on an RMD defaults to 10% unless you elect something else, and electing more is often wise if the RMD is large.

One last point of reassurance. RMDs are a floor on your withdrawals, not a ceiling. You can always take more than the minimum, taxed exactly like any other 401(k) withdrawal, with no early-withdrawal penalty at these ages since you are well past 59½.

Related reading

• 401(k) withdrawal rules: the full guide
• Penalty-free withdrawals at 59½: when taking money out becomes optional
• Roth 401(k) basics: the account with no lifetime RMDs

Sources: IRS: Required minimum distributions · IRS RMD FAQs · IRC §401(a)(9)