How to Take a Required Minimum Distribution Before the Deadline

The year-end letter from your IRA custodian usually lands about now, and many people assume the custodian takes the required withdrawal for them. It does not unless you have asked it to. The IRS expects the owner to get the right amount out by the deadline, and the amount not withdrawn may be subject to a 25 percent excise tax.

Check whether you owe one this year

The IRS RMD FAQs say withdrawals generally start at age 73 from traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs and from workplace plans such as a 401(k). Roth IRAs have no RMD while the owner is alive. If you still work for the employer that sponsors your plan and you are not a 5 percent owner, that plan's RMD can usually wait until the year you retire.

Note your deadline

Your first RMD is due by April 1 of the year after you turn 73. Every later one is due by December 31. If you turned 73 in 2026, you can wait until April 1, 2027 for the first, but the second is still due by December 31, 2027, so two withdrawals land in the same tax year.

Work out the amount for each account

For each account, divide its balance at the close of December 31 last year by your life expectancy factor. Most people use the Uniform Lifetime Table in IRS Publication 590-B. If your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, a different table applies. The IRS RMD worksheets walk through both cases. Your custodian's year-end statement shows the December 31 balance.

Request the withdrawal from the right accounts

Log in to each custodian or call them and ask for a distribution of at least the RMD, with a date well before December 31 so a slow transfer does not push it into January. IRA RMDs are figured separately, but the total can come out of one IRA or several. A 401(k) or 457(b) RMD must come out of that plan account itself. Ask the custodian to confirm the amount was paid in this calendar year.

Correct a missed RMD with Form 5329

If a deadline passes, withdraw the shortfall as soon as you notice it. Report it on Form 5329, Part IX. The Form 5329 instructions cut the tax to 10 percent when the shortfall is taken and a return reporting the tax is filed within the correction window, generally ending two years after the year of the miss.

If the miss was an honest error. The instructions let you ask the IRS to waive the tax: attach a statement explaining the reasonable error and the steps taken to fix it, and write RC and the amount to be waived next to the Part IX line, as the instructions describe.

If you do not otherwise file a return. The instructions say Form 5329 can be filed by itself on paper, signed and dated, at the time and place you would file a Form 1040.

Sources. IRS retirement plan and IRA RMD FAQs, IRS Publication 590-B, IRS RMD worksheets, About Form 5329, Instructions for Form 5329.