How your RMD age is set
SECURE 2.0 (§107) changed the applicable RMD ages. The final regulations and the separate IRS proposal distinguish these birth-year groups:
- Born 1951–1958 → age 73 under the final regulations.
- Born 1959 → age 73 is proposed, not final. T.D. 10001 reserves this cohort; proposed REG-103529-23 would assign age 73. That status was checked September 29, 2026.
- Born 1960 or later → age 75 under the final regulations. The first cohort reaches 75 in 2035, with an IRA first-RMD deadline of April 1, 2036.
- Earlier cohorts used age 70½ or 72, with a July 1, 1949 birth-date cutoff. This tool does not calculate their historical first deadlines.
What the Required Beginning Date actually means
For a traditional IRA owner, the Required Beginning Date (RBD) is April 1 of the year after the year the owner reaches the applicable RMD age (Treas. Reg. §1.408-8(b)(1)(i)). Continuing to work does not delay that IRA deadline.
The first RMD is for the year you reach the applicable age. You can take it in that year or by April 1 of the following year. The following year's RMD is still due by December 31 of that year. For example, a traditional IRA owner born in 1953 reaches age 73 in 2026: the 2026 RMD is due by April 1, 2027, and the 2027 RMD by December 31, 2027. Taking both in 2027 may increase taxable income; amounts that recover after-tax basis are not taxed again.
Why this is not a workplace-plan calculator
A workplace plan may allow RMDs to start after retirement if that is later than the applicable-age year. Plan terms and the 5-percent-owner rules matter. A birth-year-only calculator cannot determine that deadline, so this tool excludes 401(k)s and other workplace plans. Traditional SEP and SIMPLE IRAs follow the IRA-owner timing rule, not this workplace-plan retirement exception.
Why your Roth IRA skips all of this
A Roth IRA has no lifetime RMDs for the original owner (§408A(c)(4)). After the owner's death, the beneficiary rules apply as though the owner died before a required beginning date (Treas. Reg. §1.408-8(b)(1)(ii)). Inherited Roth IRAs therefore have separate distribution requirements; this calculator does not determine them.
Designated Roth workplace accounts, including Roth 401(k)s, also have no owner-lifetime RMDs beginning in 2024 under SECURE 2.0 §325. That change did not cancel a 2023 RMD permitted to be paid by April 1, 2024, and it did not eliminate beneficiary distribution rules.
Sources and rule status
- Treas. Reg. §1.401(a)(9)-2(b): final birth-cohort rules, the reserved 1959 paragraph, and workplace-plan RBD conditions.
- Treas. Reg. §1.408-8(a)(4) and (b)(1): IRA timing, SEP/SIMPLE treatment, and the Roth-owner exemption.
- IRS Bulletin 2024-33: final T.D. 10001 (including §1.401(a)(9)-5(a)(3) deadlines) and, separately, proposed REG-103529-23 for the 1959 cohort; also the SECURE 2.0 §325 effective-date explanation.
- IRS RMD FAQs: first and subsequent deadlines and taxation of distributions, including after-tax basis.
Sources checked September 29, 2026. The current eCFR displayed Title 26 through September 25, 2026; the 1959 paragraph remained reserved. The IRS proposal is not a final regulation.
Educational tool only — not tax, legal, or investment advice. Confirm account-specific deadlines and any overdue distributions with your IRA custodian or tax professional.