Missed RMD Penalty: What to Do If You Forgot an RMD

You've found a required minimum distribution you didn't take, or didn't take in full. There's a set way to fix it. We'll go through the steps in order, including how to ask the IRS to drop the penalty.

How much is the missed RMD penalty?

The tax applies only to the shortfall, which is the part of your RMD that didn't come out by the deadline. It doesn't apply to your whole account or your whole RMD.

Say your RMD for the year was $18,000 and you took $6,000. Round, made-up numbers. Your shortfall is $12,000.

Before 2023 this tax was 50%. The SECURE 2.0 Act cut it to 25% and added the 10% rate. You'll still see the old 50% figure in older articles.

The excise tax is separate from income tax. When you take the missed money out, you'll owe regular income tax on it too, the same as on any RMD.

How to fix a missed RMD, step by step

Step 1: Work out the shortfall

Find the account balance on December 31 of the year before the missed year. Divide by the IRS factor for your age in the missed year. Subtract anything you did withdraw that year. What's left is your shortfall.

Your custodian may have the RMD figure on file, and our RMD calculator will check it. If you aren't sure you were even required to take one, our RMD age chart shows when RMDs start for your birth year.

Check every account while you're at it. IRA RMDs can be added together and taken from any of your IRAs, but each 401(k) has to pay its own. A common miss is the old 401(k) from a job you left years ago. Our guide to required minimum distributions explains which accounts can be combined.

Step 2: Take the missed amount now

Call the custodian or plan and withdraw the shortfall. Do this first, before any paperwork. The waiver and the lower 10% rate both depend on the money having come out.

Two practical points:

• Make it a separate withdrawal. Don't fold it into this year's RMD. A stand-alone transaction with its own date is easy to point to later.
• This year's RMD is still due. The catch-up withdrawal covers the missed year only. You still owe the current year's full RMD by December 31.

The catch-up money is taxed as income in the year you actually take it. So if you missed your 2025 RMD and take it in 2026, your 2026 return will show both the late 2025 amount and your regular 2026 RMD. Plan your withholding or estimated tax payments for that.

Step 3: Fill out Form 5329 for the year you missed

Form 5329 is where the IRS wants a missed RMD reported. The RMD section is Part IX.

• Use the form for the missed year. Missed a 2025 RMD? You need the 2025 Form 5329. The IRS keeps prior-year forms on its website.
• Sometimes it goes in alone. The instructions say to file the prior year's Form 5329 by itself if you have no other changes and haven't filed a federal return for that year, and to file it with Form 1040-X if you have other changes. They don't spell out the case where you've already filed and nothing else changes, so ask a tax preparer or the IRS which way to send it. A form filed by itself can't be e-filed. It goes in on paper, with your address on page 1 and your signature and date on page 3.
• Missed more than one year? Each year gets its own form, using that year's version.

The Form 5329 instructions on IRS.gov give the line-by-line detail. Line numbers have changed between years, so follow the instructions for the year you're filing.

Step 4: Ask for the waiver, or pay the tax

On the form you have a choice. You can ask the IRS to waive the tax, or you can figure the tax and pay it. If your miss was an honest mistake and you've fixed it, we'd ask for the waiver. It costs you a short letter.

The reasonable-cause waiver

The IRS can waive the excise tax if you show two things: the shortfall was due to reasonable error, and you're taking reasonable steps to remedy the shortfall. Those are the IRS's own words from the form instructions.

Here's how the request works on the 2025 form:

1. Fill in the Part IX lines for your required amount (lines 52a and 52b) and what you took by the deadline (lines 53a and 53b), as instructed. The "a" lines are for accounts where you've since taken the full missed amount inside the correction window, and the "b" lines are for any others. A catch-up withdrawal taken after the deadline doesn't go on line 53a or 53b.
2. On the dotted line next to line 54a or 54b, whichever applies, write "RC" and, in parentheses, the amount of the shortfall you want waived. Subtract that from your total shortfall before you finish the line. If you're asking for the whole thing to be waived, the line comes to zero.
3. Complete line 55, which adds lines 54a and 54b. You pay any tax that line shows. With a full waiver request it shows zero.
4. Attach a statement explaining what happened.

The IRS then reviews what you sent and decides. A waiver isn't automatic, and the instructions don't list which reasons count. If the IRS says no, expect a bill for the tax.

What to put in the statement

Keep it short and factual. A good statement answers four questions.

• Which account, which year, and how much was missed?
• Why did it happen?
• When did you find out?
• What did you do about it, and on what date?

Whatever happened, say it plainly: an illness or a hospital stay, a death in the family, a request the custodian didn't process, a wrong RMD figure, an old account you'd lost track of. Give the real reason. Don't dress it up.

A sample statement

This is an example of the form such a statement can take, with made-up details. Yours should describe what really happened to you.

Notice what's in there: the dollar amounts, the dates, one clear reason, and the fix. Keep a copy, along with the custodian statement showing the catch-up withdrawal.

If you pay instead: the 10% rate and the correction window

Maybe you don't have a reason the IRS would accept, or your waiver was turned down. The 10% rate may still be open to you.

To get 10% and not 25%, you have to do two things during the correction window: take the missed amount from the account that owed it, and file a return that reports the tax.

Under the tax code, the window opens on the date the tax is imposed. It closes on the earliest of three dates:

• the day the IRS mails you a notice of deficiency for this tax,
• the day the IRS assesses the tax, or
• the last day of the second tax year that begins after the year the tax applies to.

For a calendar-year taxpayer, that third date works out like this. Miss a 2025 RMD that was due December 31, 2025, and the outside limit is December 31, 2027. The IRS's own summary is "10% if the RMD is timely corrected within two years."

How to keep it from happening again

• Ask each custodian to send your RMD automatically every year, on a date well before December.
• Keep one written list of every account that has an RMD, old workplace plans included. Our guide to the Retirement Savings Lost and Found database shows how to search for ones you've forgotten.
• Combine accounts where it makes sense. Fewer accounts means fewer RMDs to track. Our guide to rollovers and transfers covers how the money moves.
• Make sure a spouse or family member knows the list exists.

A missed RMD with large dollar amounts, several missed years, or an inherited account is worth an hour with a tax professional. The rules for inherited accounts are different, and we don't cover them here.

Common questions

Should I pay the penalty when I ask for a waiver?

The form instructions tell you to pay any tax shown on line 55. If you're asking for the full shortfall to be waived, that line shows zero, so there's nothing to send. If the IRS denies the request, it will bill you.

Does my custodian report a missed RMD to the IRS?

Custodians check a box on Form 5498 each year to tell the IRS that an IRA has an RMD due, and they report what you withdrew on Form 1099-R. So the IRS has the pieces. Reporting the miss yourself is the safer course, and it's what the waiver and the 10% rate require.

I took my RMD a few days late, in January. Do I still file Form 5329?

Yes. Late is still a shortfall for the year it was due, and the form instructions say a withdrawal taken after the deadline doesn't count toward that year's amount. Because you've already corrected it, you can ask for the waiver. File the form for the missed year with your explanation.

Can I fix a missed 401(k) RMD by taking extra from my IRA?

No. Each 401(k) has to pay its own RMD, and the catch-up has to come from the plan that owed it. IRA shortfalls can be made up from any of your traditional IRAs.

Is the 25% charged on my whole RMD?

No. It's charged only on the part you didn't take. If you took most of your RMD and came up $2,000 short, the tax is figured on the $2,000.

We base our guides on primary sources such as the IRS, the Department of Labor, and federal regulators. Read our editorial policy. Spot an error? Tell us.