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Figuring the Owner's Required Minimum Distribution: IRA Withdrawals (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Figuring the Owner's Required Minimum Distribution” within ira withdrawals. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

You can't keep funds in a traditional IRA (including SEP and SIMPLE IRAs) indefinitely. Eventually, they must be distributed. If there are no distributions, or if the distributions aren't large enough, you may have to pay an excise tax on the amount not distributed as required. See Excess Accumulations (Insufficient Distributions), later, under What Acts Result in Penalties or Additional Taxes. The requirements for distributing IRA funds differ, depending on whether you are the IRA owner or the beneficiary of a decedent's IRA.

Figuring the Owner's Required Minimum Distribution

Figure your required minimum distribution for each year by dividing the IRA account balance (defined next) as of the close of business on December 31 of the preceding year by the applicable denominator or life expectancy. Tables showing applicable denominators and life expectancies are found in Appendix B and are discussed later.

See Which Table Do You Use To Determine Your Required Minimum Distribution later for more information

IRA account balance.

The IRA account balance is the amount in the IRA at the end of the year preceding the year for which the required minimum distribution is being figured.

Contributions.

Contributions increase the account balance in the year they are made. If a contribution for last year isn't made until after December 31 of last year, it increases the account balance for this year, but not for last year. Disregard contributions made after December 31 of last year in determining your required minimum distribution for this year.

Outstanding rollovers.

The IRA account balance is adjusted by outstanding rollovers that aren't in any account at the end of the preceding year.

For a rollover from a qualified plan or another IRA that wasn't in any account at the end of the preceding year, increase the account balance of the receiving IRA by the rollover amount valued as of the date of receipt.

No recharacterizations of conversions made in 2018 or later.

A conversion of a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, and a rollover from any other eligible retirement plan to a Roth IRA, made in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, cannot be recharacterized as having been made to a traditional IRA.

Distributions.

Distributions reduce the account balance in the year they are made. A distribution for last year made after December 31 of last year reduces the account balance for this year, but not for last year. Disregard distributions made after December 31 of last year in determining your required minimum distribution for this year.

Applicable denominator.

This is the number by which you divide your account balance as of December 31 of last year in order to figure your required minimum distribution.

Life expectancy.

You are required to make distributions over your lifetime or a period that represents the combined life expectancies of you and your designated beneficiary, if applicable. You are able to meet this requirement when you use your applicable denominator for each year you make your required minimum distribution. You will be able to locate your applicable denominator in one of the three tables located in Appendix B. The life expectancy tables are as follows.

If you must use Table I or Table III, your applicable denominator for 2026 is listed in the table next to your age as of your birthday in 2026. If you use Table II, your applicable denominator for 2026 is listed where the row or column containing your age as of your birthday in 2026 intersects with the row or column containing your spouse's age as of their birthday in 2026.

Distributions during your lifetime.

Required minimum distributions during your lifetime are figured using the current year’s applicable denominator that is generally determined using Table III in Appendix B. However, if the sole beneficiary of your IRA is your spouse who is more than 10 years younger than you, see Sole beneficiary spouse who is more than 10 years younger below.

To figure the required minimum distribution for 2026, divide your account balance at the end of 2025 by the applicable denominator from the table. This is the applicable denominator listed next to your age (as of your birthday in 2026) in Table III in Appendix B, unless the sole beneficiary of your IRA is your spouse who is more than 10 years younger than you.

Example.

You own a traditional IRA. Your account balance at the end of 2025 was $100,000. You are married and your spouse, who is the sole beneficiary of your IRA, is 6 years younger than you. You turn 75 years old in 2026. You use Table III. Your applicable denominator is 24.6. Your required minimum distribution for 2026 would be $4,065 ($100,000 ÷ 24.6).

Sole beneficiary spouse who is more than 10 years younger.

If the sole beneficiary of your IRA is your spouse and your spouse is more than 10 years younger than you, use the applicable denominator from Table II in Appendix B.

The applicable denominator to use is located where the row or column containing your age as of your birthday in 2026 intersects with the row or column containing your spouse's age as of their birthday in 2026.

You figure your required minimum distribution for 2026 by dividing your account balance at the end of 2025 by the applicable denominator from Table II in Appendix B.

Example.

You own a traditional IRA. Your account balance at the end of 2025 was $100,000. You are married and your spouse, who is the sole beneficiary of your IRA, is 11 years younger than you. You turn 75 in 2026 and your spouse turns 64. You use Table II. Your applicable denominator is 25.3. Your required minimum distribution for 2026 would be $3,953 ($100,000 ÷ 25.3).

Special rules where portion of account balance is used to purchase an annuity.

If you purchase an annuity contract with a portion of your IRA account balance, then special rules may apply in determining your RMD from the remaining account balance. Specifically, you may elect to satisfy the RMD requirement for the year by combining the value of the annuity contract with the remaining account balance and reducing the RMD by the amount of the annuity payments.

Example.

You own a traditional IRA. In 2025, you purchase an annuity contract with a portion of your account balance. As of December 31, 2025, your remaining account balance is $100,000, and the value of the annuity contract is $200,000. Your annuity payments in 2025 total $8,000.

To use the rule described in the paragraph above, your RMD due from the remaining account balance for 2026 would be the excess of the RMD based on the total of the remaining account balance added to the value of the annuity contract ($300,000), over the $8,000 annuity payments.

Distributions in the year of the owner's death.

The required minimum distribution for the year of the owner's death depends on whether the owner died before the required beginning date, defined earlier.

If the owner died before the required beginning date, there is no required minimum distribution in the year of the owner's death. For years after the year of the owner's death, see Owner Died Before Required Beginning Date, later, under IRA Beneficiaries.

If the owner died on or after the required beginning date, the IRA beneficiaries are responsible for figuring and distributing the owner's required minimum distribution in the year of death. The owner's required minimum distribution for the year of death is generally based on Table III in Appendix B. However, if the sole beneficiary of the IRA is the owner's spouse who is more than 10 years younger than the owner, use the life expectancy from Table II.

Note:

You figure the required minimum distribution for the year in which an IRA owner dies as if the owner lived for the entire year.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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