RMD Age Chart: When RMDs Start by Birth Year (73 or 75)

Your RMD age depends on one thing: the year you were born. Find your birth year in the chart below, then read on for your first deadline and the exceptions that can push it later.

RMD age chart by birth year

These are the ages for account owners as of 2026. Inherited accounts follow their own rules.

"RMD age" means the age you reach during the calendar year. Your birthday month doesn't matter. Turn 73 on January 2 or on December 30 and the year counts the same.

Your first RMD year and deadline

Here's the same chart turned into calendar dates for the people starting now and over the next decade.

Notice the gap. If the proposed age of 73 for people born in 1959 holds, nobody reaches RMD age for the first time in 2033 or 2034, because the jump from 73 to 75 skips those two years.

Born in 1953? This is your year. Your first RMD is for 2026, and you can take it any time between now and April 1, 2027.

Where the ages come from

For decades the starting age was 70½. Congress has moved it twice since.

• The SECURE Act (2019) raised it to 72 for anyone who hadn't reached 70½ by the end of 2019. That's people born on or after July 1, 1949.
• The SECURE 2.0 Act (2022) raised it to 73 starting in 2023, and to 75 starting in 2033.

SECURE 2.0 didn't hand out ages by birth year. It set them by the date you reach a certain birthday, and the birth-year chart is what falls out when you do the arithmetic. That arithmetic is also where the 1959 problem comes from.

The IRS still describes the rule on its own pages as "age 73," since that's the age in effect for everyone starting RMDs today. You can read its summary on the IRS RMD questions page. Our main guide to required minimum distributions covers how the amount's figured and which accounts can be combined.

Born in 1959? The drafting quirk

If you were born in 1959, you may have read that your RMD age is 73. You may also have read that it's 75. Both writers were reading the same law.

SECURE 2.0 says age 73 applies to people who reach 73 before January 1, 2033. Someone born in 1959 turns 73 in 2032, so that fits. The law then says age 75 applies to people who reach 74 after December 31, 2032. Someone born in 1959 turns 74 in 2033, so that fits too.

One birth year, two answers. Most people who follow this treat it as a drafting mistake.

What the IRS has done about it

On July 19, 2024, the Treasury Department and the IRS published final RMD regulations in the Federal Register. Those final rules set 73 for people born from 1951 through 1958 and 75 for people born in 1960 or later, and they left the paragraph for people born in 1959 marked "Reserved." On the same day the agencies published a separate proposed regulation that would fill it in: for someone born in 1959, the RMD age would be 73.

A proposed regulation isn't final law. We checked on October 13, 2026: the 1959 paragraph in the current regulation still reads "Reserved," and the 2024 proposal hasn't been published in final form. Two IRS announcements, numbered 2025-2 and 2026-7, pushed back the expected start dates for other parts of that proposal. Neither one changed the 1959 answer. Congress could also fix the wording itself.

So we'd plan on 73 if you were born in 1959, since that's the only answer the IRS has given, and we'd check again closer to the date. You have time. Your 73rd birthday comes in 2032, which makes April 1, 2033 the earliest deadline you could face.

The April 1 deadline for your first RMD

Your first RMD belongs to the year you reach RMD age. You get extra time to take that one: until April 1 of the following year. The IRS calls that date your required beginning date.

Every RMD after the first is due by December 31 of its own year. No grace period.

April 1 is a real deadline, and it isn't April 15. People mix it up with the tax filing date every year.

The two-RMDs-in-one-year trap

Waiting until April 1 doesn't skip a year. It stacks two withdrawals into one.

Say you were born in 1953 and your traditional IRA held $400,000 on December 31, 2025. These are round, made-up numbers. The IRS factor for age 73 is 26.5, so your 2026 RMD is $400,000 ÷ 26.5, or about $15,094.

You could take that in 2026. Or you could wait and take it by April 1, 2027.

If you wait, your 2027 RMD is still due by December 31, 2027. Suppose the balance was $400,000 again on December 31, 2026. The factor for age 74 is 25.5, so that second RMD is about $15,686.

The total is the same. What changes is the year it lands in. Doubling up can push part of that income into a higher tax bracket, make more of your Social Security taxable, and raise your Medicare premiums two years later, since those premiums are tied to your income.

Waiting does pay off in one case: when your income in the first year is much higher than it'll be the next. If you worked most of 2026 and retire in December, 2027 may be the cheaper year to take both. Run the numbers for both years before you choose.

Want to see your own number? Our calculator uses the same IRS table.

Two exceptions that change the answer

Roth accounts

Roth IRAs have no RMDs while the original owner is alive. It doesn't matter what year you were born.

Roth money inside a workplace plan used to be different. Starting in 2024, Roth 401(k) and Roth 403(b) accounts don't require RMDs from the owner either. Once the owner dies, beneficiaries of any Roth account do face distribution rules.

Still working

If you're still working when you reach RMD age, you may be able to delay RMDs from your current employer's plan until the year you retire. Then your first deadline becomes April 1 of the year after you retire.

Three conditions apply:

• The plan has to allow the delay. Some plans require RMDs at 73 even from people still on the payroll.
• You can't be a 5% owner of the business. The tax code defines that as owning more than 5%.
• It covers only the plan at the job you're still working. Old 401(k)s from former employers don't get the delay.

IRAs never qualify. A traditional IRA, SEP IRA, or SIMPLE IRA starts RMDs at your RMD age whether you've retired or not.

Some people who are still working ask their current plan whether it accepts roll-ins from an old 401(k), so that money sits under the still-working exception too. Whether that's worth it depends on the plan's fees and investment choices. Our guide to your choices for an old 401(k) lays out the trade-offs.

What to do in the year you reach RMD age

1. List every traditional IRA and every workplace plan you have, including the old ones. Our guide to finding an old 401(k) helps if one has gone missing.
2. Write down each account's balance on December 31 of the year before.
3. Figure each RMD, or check the number your custodian gives you against our RMD calculator.
4. Decide whether you'll take the first one this year or by April 1 next year, with both years' income in front of you.
5. Request the withdrawal weeks ahead of the deadline, so a processing delay can't push it past the date.

If you're moving accounts around that year, take the RMD first. An RMD can't be rolled over, and our guide to rollovers and transfers explains how the rest of the move works.

Common questions

I was born in 1960. Is my RMD age 73 or 75?

It's 75 under current law. You turn 75 in 2035, so your first RMD is for 2035 and you can take it as late as April 1, 2036.

I was born in 1951. When was my first RMD due?

You reached 73 in 2024, so your first RMD was for 2024 and was due by April 1, 2025. If you haven't taken it, read our guide to the missed RMD penalty and act soon.

Is the RMD age going to change again?

Nobody knows. Congress has changed it twice since 2019, and a later law could change it again. The ages on this page are the rules as of October 2026, with the 1959 age still resting on a proposed regulation.

Can I take money out before my RMD age?

Yes. RMD age is when withdrawals become required. You can withdraw from a traditional IRA without the 10% early withdrawal penalty once you're 59½, and each withdrawal is taxed as income. For a workplace plan, the rule of 55 can open the door earlier.

Do my spouse and I use the same RMD age?

Each of you uses your own birth year and your own accounts. If one of you was born in 1958 and the other in 1961, one starts at 73 and the other at 75.

Does my RMD age apply to an IRA I inherited?

No. Inherited accounts follow separate rules that depend on who you inherited from and when. IRS Publication 590-B covers them.

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.