If you are 73 or older, or will be soon, the Internal Revenue Service does not care how the stock market felt in August. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, the age for required minimum distributions from traditional IRAs and most workplace plans is 73 for people born from 1951 through 1959, and 75 for those born in 1960 or later.
Roth IRAs generally have no lifetime RMDs for the original owner. The math is simple and unforgiving: the IRS publishes life expectancy tables, you divide last year's year end balance by the factor, and you withdraw at least that amount by the deadline or face a steep penalty.
The quiet trap is not the rule itself. The trap is waiting until December, taking a large lump sum into a year when other income is already high, and discovering in April that the distribution pushed more of your Social Security into taxable territory or raised Medicare IRMAA two years later.
Know Which Accounts Force a Withdrawal
Traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, and most 401(k) and 403(b) balances built with pretax dollars are in the RMD system once you reach the applicable age. If you are still working past that age and own less than 5 percent of the company, some workplace plans let you delay RMDs from that current employer's plan until you retire.
That workplace exception does not pause RMDs from old IRAs. Roth 401(k) balances have special treatment under recent law changes that generally align them with Roth IRA lifetime rules for the owner, but plan documents still matter.
Make a one page list: every account, pretax or Roth, custodian phone number, and whether an RMD is due this year. Families who inherit IRAs face different timelines under the 10 year rule for many non spouse beneficiaries.
Do not mix those rules with your own lifetime RMD. Wrong calendar, wrong penalty.
Run the Number Before the Market Finishes the Year
Your 2026 RMD is based on the account balance on December 31, 2025, divided by the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table factor for your age, unless a spouse more than ten years younger is the sole beneficiary and you qualify for a joint life table. You do not need a crystal ball for September planning.
Take last year's year end statement, apply this year's factor, and treat that figure as a working target. If markets rose sharply in 2025, the dollar RMD is larger even if your spending did not change.
If you have several IRAs, the IRS lets you calculate an RMD for each traditional IRA and then take the total from one or more of them. 401(k) RMDs are generally taken from each plan separately. Put the working number on a sticky note on the fridge.
A number you can see gets managed. A number you avoid becomes a December wire that hits at the worst tax moment.
Watch the Stack: Social Security, IRMAA, and Brackets
An RMD is ordinary income. It can raise the share of Social Security benefits that is taxable. It can also push modified adjusted gross income high enough to trigger IRMAA, the income related monthly adjustment amount that raises Medicare Part B and Part D premiums with a two year lookback.
The brackets and IRMAA thresholds change with inflation, so use current year IRS and CMS figures, not a memory of 2019. If you are close to a cliff, spreading withdrawals earlier in the year does not reduce the annual RMD, but coordinating other moves can help: realizing capital losses in a taxable account, delaying a Roth conversion to a quieter year, or timing a large capital gain sale away from the RMD year when possible.
None of this is a parlor trick. It is calendar work. If your tax preparer only hears from you in March, send the projected RMD now and ask one question: what else should we avoid stacking on top of this.
Consider a Qualified Charitable Distribution If You Give Anyway
If you are 70 and a half or older and you donate to charity, a qualified charitable distribution from an IRA can satisfy part or all of your RMD while keeping that amount out of taxable income, within annual IRS limits. The gift must go directly from the IRA custodian to a qualified charity.
You cannot take the money, write a personal check, and call it a QCD. Donor advised funds and most private foundations do not qualify for QCDs. Get the charity's legal name and EIN to the custodian early.
December requests jam phone lines. If you already give $1,000 or $5,000 a year to a church, alma mater, or local nonprofit, ask whether a QCD is cleaner than taking the RMD, paying tax, and donating after tax cash.
For households that itemize less often under higher standard deductions, the QCD can be the rare move that is both generous and tax smart.
Do Not Let the Penalty Scare You Into a Bad Sale
Miss an RMD and the excise tax can still hurt, even after SECURE 2.0 reduced the penalty percentage in many cases and allowed a path to waiver when you correct promptly and show reasonable cause. Fear of the penalty leads some people to liquidate the most volatile holdings on a bad day in late December just to clear the number.
A better approach is mechanical. Set a target date in October or early November. Decide in advance which account will fund the RMD. Prefer cash or a bond position inside the IRA when possible so you are not forced to sell a stock you wanted to keep on a single ugly session.
You may take more than the minimum. You may take it in installments. What you may not do is forget. Put the distribution on the same calendar as property taxes and insurance renewals.
Coordinate With a Spouse and One Written Plan
Couples often discover too late that each spouse has a different RMD age, different account mix, and different charity habits. Sit down once with both Social Security benefit estimates, both Medicare cards, and both IRA statements.
Write who takes which distribution, when, and where the tax withholding will be set. Federal withholding on IRA distributions is optional in amount, but under withholding turns into an April check you did not budget.
State rules vary. If one spouse still works and has a workplace plan delay, say so in the notes so the retired spouse does not assume both calendars match. Leave the one page plan where an adult child could find it.
RMDs continue when memory fades. Paper is kindness.
RMD planning checklist for the kitchen table
| Step | Do this | Skip this |
|---|---|---|
| List accounts | Every IRA and plan, pretax or Roth | Relying on memory |
| Estimate RMD | Prior year end balance divided by IRS factor | Waiting for a December letter only |
| Tax stack | Ask about Social Security and IRMAA cliffs | Treating RMD as free spending money |
| Charity | Ask custodian about a QCD if you give | Writing a personal check and calling it a QCD |
| Timing | Schedule October or early November | Emergency sale on December 28 |
| Record | One page plan for both spouses | Leaving heirs to guess |
Required minimum distributions are not a verdict on how well you saved. They are a tax collection schedule. Treat them like one. In September, while you still have calendar room, write the working number, name the account, decide on withholding, and ask whether a qualified charitable distribution fits gifts you already planned to make.
The IRS tables will not soften because the market had a loud week. Your household can still soften the landing with ordinary paperwork done early. That is not clever finance.
That is adult money management, which is the only kind that protects a retirement paycheck.
Sources
- Internal Revenue Service, Retirement Topics: Required Minimum Distributions (current RMD ages and tables)
- SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, RMD age changes and related IRA provisions
- IRS Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, IRMAA overview for Part B and Part D
- IRS, Qualified charitable distributions guidance for IRA owners age 70.5 and older