Anyone with money in a traditional IRA, a 401(k), or a similar workplace retirement account no longer has to start pulling it out at 72. Required minimum distributions, the mandatory annual withdrawals the government forces once tax-deferred savings sit long enough, now begin at age 73. The one-year delay traces back to a 2022 federal law, and it buys older savers an extra twelve months of tax-deferred growth before the withdrawal clock starts. For someone weighing when to retire, when to convert an IRA, or simply when the first mandatory withdrawal has to come out, the age on the calendar matters as much as the balance in the account.
Why the Withdrawal Age Moved From 72 to 73
The age on the withdrawal rule has moved twice in six years, and both moves went the same direction: later. The original SECURE Act, passed in 2019, first pushed the required withdrawal age from 70½ to 72. The SECURE 2.0 Act, passed at the end of 2022, pushed it again, to 73, for anyone who turned 72 in 2023 or afterward. Both changes reflect the same underlying rationale: Americans are working and living longer, and lawmakers have twice concluded that tax-deferred savings should be allowed to compound for a little longer before the government requires anything to come out.
The rule now in force is stated plainly on the government’s own retirement-plans page: a saver generally must start taking withdrawals from a traditional IRA, a SEP IRA, a SIMPLE IRA, or a workplace retirement account once they reach age 73. Anyone who turned 72 in 2022 or earlier is already locked into the older schedule and must keep withdrawing on that basis; the new age only applies going forward.
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Which Accounts and Which Birth Years the Rule Covers
The 73 threshold is broad by design. It reaches traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, 457(b) plans, profit-sharing plans, and other defined-contribution plans, plus anyone who inherited a Roth IRA, even though the original owner of that Roth account never had to withdraw a dime. Only two categories sit outside the rule entirely: Roth IRAs and designated Roth accounts inside a 401(k) or 403(b), neither of which forces a withdrawal while the original account holder is alive.
Birth year, not current age, decides who lands on the 73 track versus a later one. A regulation the IRS finalized in 2024 sets the applicable age at 73 for anyone who turned 72 after December 31, 2022 and turns 73 before January 1, 2033 — in practice, everyone born from 1951 through 1959. People born in 1960 or later are on a separate schedule that pushes their own required beginning age three years further out, to 75.
The Filing Deadlines That Come With Turning 73
Reaching 73 is not the same as owing a withdrawal that day. For an IRA, the required beginning date is April 1 of the year after the one in which the owner turns 73. Workplace plans generally follow the same April 1 marker, except that someone who is still working can often delay until they actually retire, if the plan allows it and they do not own 5% or more of the business sponsoring it.
The first year carries a wrinkle. A retiree who turns 73 can wait until that April 1 deadline for the first withdrawal, or take it by December 31 of the year they turn 73 instead, which spreads two taxable withdrawals across two different tax years rather than stacking both into one. Every year after that first one, the deadline reverts to a flat December 31, with no April grace period left to use.
The 25 Percent Penalty for Missing a Withdrawal
Skipping a required withdrawal, or taking less than the calculated amount, triggers an excise tax on the shortfall rather than a warning letter. The current penalty is 25% of the amount that should have come out, dropping to 10% if the shortfall is corrected within two years, and it is reported on Form 5329.
The dollar amount at risk scales with the size of the missed withdrawal, which is calculated by dividing the prior year-end account balance by a distribution period drawn from the IRS’s Uniform Lifetime Table. A larger account balance produces a larger required withdrawal, and therefore a larger penalty base if that withdrawal is missed entirely.
The Next Move: Age 75 Starting in 2033
The 73 threshold is not the final stop. The same regulation raises the required beginning age again, to 75, for anyone who turns 74 after December 31, 2032 — in effect, everyone born in 1960 or later. Nothing changes before that date: the age-73 rule stays in place for every current retiree subject to it, and the age-75 rule has no bearing on anyone who has already started required withdrawals.
For a stretch after the underlying 2022 law passed, its wording left people born in 1959 in an ambiguous spot, readable as assigning them both ages at once. The IRS closed that gap in the regulation it finalized in 2024, fixing the applicable age at 73 for that birth year and reserving 75 only for those who turn 74 after 2032. Until 2033 arrives, the number that governs almost every current retiree remains the one the agency states on its own retirement-topics page: 73.
What the Age Rule Does Not Answer: What Happens After the Owner Dies
The age-73 threshold governs only the original account owner. Once that owner dies, the withdrawal schedule resets around the beneficiary instead of the age rule that got the account there. For the year of death itself, whatever the owner still owed but had not yet withdrawn remains due. Starting the following year, the schedule that applies depends on how the beneficiary is classified, not on the age-73 rule that applied while the original owner was alive. That distinction matters most for anyone doing retirement or estate planning around a large account, since the age-73 rule that shaped decisions during the owner’s lifetime simply stops applying the moment the account changes hands.
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This article was reported and written with the assistance of AI and reviewed before publication.
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.
