A Roth IRA carries a feature that surprises many retirement savers: the original account owner is never required to take a withdrawal from it, no matter how old the person becomes. Traditional IRAs and most workplace retirement plans work differently, forcing an annual withdrawal once the owner reaches age 73. That single distinction shapes how a retiree decides which account to draw down first, how much taxable income shows up on a tax return each year, and how large a balance can eventually pass to heirs.
No Lifetime RMDs Under Internal Revenue Code Section 408A(c)(5)
The Internal Revenue Service confirms the rule directly in its retirement-plan guidance: required minimum distribution rules “do not apply to Roth IRAs or Designated Roth accounts while the owner is alive.” The exemption traces to Internal Revenue Code Section 408A(c)(5), which excludes Roth IRAs from the distribution framework that governs traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, and SIMPLE IRAs under Section 401(a)(9). A traditional IRA owner who turns 73 must begin annual withdrawals calculated from a life-expectancy table published in IRS Publication 590-B, whether or not the money is needed for living expenses that year. That age threshold has itself moved under recent law: it was 72 before 2023, rose to 73 under the SECURE 2.0 Act for owners turning 72 in 2023 or later, and is scheduled to climb again to 75 starting in 2033.
A Roth IRA owner faces none of those thresholds. The balance can sit untouched through the owner’s 70s, 80s, or 90s, continuing to compound without a mandatory taxable withdrawal ever coming due during that person’s lifetime. Missing a traditional-account RMD carries a real penalty: an excise tax of 25 percent of the amount not withdrawn, reduced to 10 percent if the shortfall is corrected within two years. A Roth IRA owner cannot trigger that penalty, because no withdrawal is ever required in the first place. Qualified withdrawals the owner does choose to take, of both contributions and earnings, come out federal-income-tax-free once the account has been open five years and the owner has reached age 59½.
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SECURE 2.0 Extended the Break to Workplace Roth Accounts in 2024
Before 2024, the lifetime exemption applied only to Roth IRAs; a worker holding a Roth account inside a 401(k) or 403(b) still faced mandatory withdrawals starting at the same age that governs traditional workplace accounts. The SECURE 2.0 Act closed that gap. According to the IRS’s frequently asked questions on designated Roth accounts, designated Roth accounts in a 401(k) or 403(b) plan are no longer subject to lifetime RMDs beginning with the 2024 plan year, aligning their treatment with a Roth IRA.
The change removed a step many retirees previously took solely to avoid a penalty: rolling a workplace Roth balance into a Roth IRA before age 73 just to escape the distribution requirement. A worker or retiree who keeps the balance inside an employer plan no longer needs that maneuver, though rolling the money into a Roth IRA can still make sense for investment-option flexibility or account consolidation.
RMD Rules Return Once the Account Passes to a Beneficiary
The lifetime exemption ends at the original owner’s death. The IRS’s required minimum distribution FAQ page confirms that beneficiaries of a Roth IRA are subject to RMD rules even though the original owner never was. For most non-spouse beneficiaries of an owner who dies after December 31, 2019, the entire account balance must be withdrawn within ten years of the owner’s death, a timeline created by the SECURE Act and separate from the lifetime rule that applied while the owner was living.
Exceptions to the ten-year rule exist for a surviving spouse, a minor child of the original owner, a beneficiary who is disabled or chronically ill, and a beneficiary not more than ten years younger than the original owner. Because qualified Roth distributions remain tax-free, an heir who inherits a Roth IRA still owes no federal income tax on the withdrawals, even though the money must come out within the ten-year window rather than being stretched across the heir’s own life expectancy. A surviving spouse has an additional option not available to other beneficiaries: treating the inherited Roth IRA as the spouse’s own account rather than as an inherited one, which restores the lifetime exemption entirely and removes the ten-year deadline for as long as the surviving spouse lives.
The Medicare Premium and Tax-Bracket Angle Behind the Roth Advantage
The lifetime exemption carries a financial consequence beyond simple flexibility. A traditional IRA’s required withdrawal counts as taxable income for the year it is taken, which can push a retiree’s modified adjusted gross income into a higher marginal tax bracket or over a threshold that triggers the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount, the surcharge Medicare adds to Part B and Part D premiums for higher-income beneficiaries. A Roth IRA’s qualified withdrawals do not count toward that calculation, because the money was already taxed before or at the time it went into the account.
That distinction gives a retiree holding both account types a planning lever. Drawing down the Roth balance in a year when other income is already elevated can avoid adding to taxable income and to the Medicare surcharge calculation, while the traditional balance stays in place until its own required withdrawal comes due at 73. A traditional account converted to a Roth IRA during a lower-income year carries its own tax bill at the time of the conversion, but once inside the Roth, that converted balance is subject to the same lifetime exemption as any other Roth dollar, removing it permanently from the required-withdrawal calculation for as long as the original owner lives.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire editorial team.
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David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
