For decades, the age at which retirement savers had to start pulling money out of a traditional IRA barely moved. That changed twice in three years, and another increase is already locked in for the next decade — a shifting deadline that can catch even attentive savers off guard about when the Internal Revenue Service expects the first withdrawal.
The Current Rule: Age 73
Retirement savers must generally begin taking required minimum distributions, or RMDs, from a traditional IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, or 401(k) starting in the year they turn 73. The age climbed from 72 to 73 under the SECURE 2.0 Act, and applies to anyone who reached age 72 after the end of 2022. Workplace retirement plan participants who are still employed and own less than 5% of the company sponsoring the plan can generally delay their RMDs until the year they actually retire, but IRA owners must begin at 73 regardless of whether they are still working.
The first RMD carries a quirk, per the IRS’s current RMD guidance: an account owner can wait until April 1 of the year after turning 73 to take that initial withdrawal, but doing so means taking two RMDs in the same calendar year — the delayed first one and the regular second one, both taxable — which can push a saver into a higher bracket for that year alone.
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The Next Increase: Age 75 Starting in 2033
The starting age is scheduled to rise again under the same law. Anyone who turns 73 after December 31, 2032, will not have to begin RMDs until age 75 instead. In practice, that means the age-73 rule described above still governs savers turning 73 through the end of 2032, while a younger cohort of retirees will get an extra two years of tax-deferred growth before the IRS requires the first mandatory withdrawal. The change does not require any action now — it simply shifts the eventual deadline for people who have not yet reached 73.
The starting age has now moved twice in roughly five years. Before 2020, the threshold sat at 70½ for decades; the original SECURE Act pushed it to 72 for people who had not yet reached that age when the law took effect, and SECURE 2.0 pushed it again to 73 and then scheduled the eventual jump to 75. Anyone estimating their own retirement income timeline should check their exact birth year against the current rule rather than relying on an age they remember from years ago, since a saver’s own required starting age depends on precisely when they turn 72 or 73 relative to the law’s effective dates.
How the Withdrawal Amount Is Actually Calculated
The age threshold determines only when withdrawals must start, not how much has to come out. Each year’s RMD is calculated by dividing the account balance as of December 31 of the prior year by a distribution period, or “applicable denominator,” taken from the IRS’s Uniform Lifetime Table, with a separate joint table used only when a spouse who is the sole beneficiary is more than 10 years younger. The IRS’s own worked example in Publication 590-B illustrates the mechanic directly: a saver turning 75 in 2026 with a $100,000 account balance at the end of 2025 uses that age’s applicable denominator of 24.6, producing a required withdrawal of $4,065 for the year, calculated as $100,000 divided by 24.6.
Because the denominator shrinks as a saver ages, the required percentage of the account that must come out increases every year even if the account balance stays flat, which is part of why RMDs tend to grow as a share of income later in retirement. A saver who turns 73 in one calendar year and delays the very first withdrawal to the following April 1 should keep in mind that the delayed withdrawal still uses the account balance from two years prior, not the balance on the date the money actually comes out, so a market swing between those two points does not change the amount legally required.
Roth Accounts Are Treated Differently
The age-73 and age-75 rules apply to traditional pre-tax accounts. Roth IRAs are not subject to RMDs at all during the original owner’s lifetime, and starting in 2024, designated Roth accounts inside a 401(k) or 403(b) workplace plan were also exempted from lifetime RMDs, matching the Roth IRA treatment. Beneficiaries who inherit either type of Roth account, however, are still subject to distribution rules of their own once the original owner dies. Retirees who hold both traditional and Roth balances sometimes use this split deliberately, drawing down the Roth account later in retirement to manage which income sources count toward the RMD calculation and which do not.
The Cost of Missing the Deadline
The RMD rules carry real financial teeth. An account owner who fails to withdraw the full required amount by the deadline faces an excise tax on the shortfall — 25% of the amount that should have been withdrawn, reduced to 10% if the mistake is corrected within two years. That penalty is on top of the ordinary income tax owed on the distribution itself once it is finally taken, and it applies whether the missed RMD was an honest oversight or a deliberate delay. The IRS does allow the penalty to be waived in cases of reasonable error, but that requires filing paperwork and an explanation, not simply catching up quietly. Because the amount of each year’s RMD is calculated by dividing the prior December 31 account balance by an IRS life-expectancy factor, the required withdrawal amount also changes every year, making it worth checking the current-year figure rather than assuming last year’s number still applies. More detail on the calculation and the age brackets is available in the IRS’s broader retirement topics guidance on RMDs.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Financial Wire editorial team.
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Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
