How is my first RMD calculated, and does rolling my 401(k) into an IRA change it?

By Kaz · Published 6 October 2026 · How this site checks figures

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Summary

Take the account's balance on December 31 of the previous year and divide it by the factor for your age in the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. At 73 the factor is 26.5, so a $300,000 balance gives a first RMD of $11,320.75. Rolling a 401(k) into an IRA doesn't change the table or the factor. It does change whether separate accounts can be combined into one withdrawal, and a rollover still in transit at year-end gets added to the IRA's balance anyway.

The year it starts

The starting age depends on when you were born. The IRS says you "generally must start taking withdrawals" at 73. SECURE 2.0 raised it to 75 for later birth years, and its wording left people born in 1959 described in two places at once. Treasury's proposed regulations, published July 19, 2024, read it this way: "In the case of an employee born in 1959, the applicable age is age 73."

The first payment can wait until April 1 of the following year. Every later one is due by December 31. Someone born in 1953 turns 73 in 2026, so the 2026 RMD is due by April 1, 2027, and the 2027 RMD by December 31, 2027.

The arithmetic, with the delay

Using the April 1 extension puts two RMDs into one tax year. An example with an IRA, not a forecast:

The $310,000 is an assumed figure. Use your own statement. The factors come from Table III in Publication 590-B: 27.4 at 72, 26.5 at 73, 25.5 at 74, 24.6 at 75, 23.7 at 76, and 20.2 at 80. A different table applies if your spouse is your sole beneficiary and is more than 10 years younger, and it gives a smaller RMD.

What an IRA changes

Combining accounts. Say the $300,000 sits in two old 401(k)s, $180,000 and $120,000. Each plan's RMD is figured and taken separately: $6,792.45 from the first and $4,528.30 from the second. The IRS is explicit that RMDs from 401(k) and 457(b) plans "must be taken separately from each of those plan accounts." Move both into IRAs and you still calculate $11,320.75 in total, but you "can withdraw the total amount from one or more of the IRAs." That's one withdrawal instead of two, from whichever account you choose.

Money in transit at New Year's. If a rollover check leaves the plan in late December and reaches the IRA in January, the plan's year-end balance no longer includes it and the IRA's doesn't yet. Publication 590-B closes that gap: "increase the account balance of the receiving IRA by the rollover amount valued as of the date of receipt." The money is counted once, in the IRA.

The still-working delay. A workplace plan can let you put off RMDs until the year you retire, unless you own 5% of the business. The IRS doesn't extend that to IRAs. An old 401(k) from an employer you've already left doesn't get the delay in any case, since you've retired from that job.

The RMD itself can't move. In a year when you owe an RMD, it can't be rolled into the IRA with everything else. The page on rolling over in an RMD year shows the order the IRS applies.

If the withdrawal is missed

The shortfall "may be subject to an excise tax of 25%, 10% if the RMD is timely corrected within two years." On the $11,320.75 example, missing it entirely would mean $2,830.19 at 25%, or $1,132.08 at 10% if corrected in time.

The combining rules differ again for 403(b) contracts, which can be totaled like IRAs; the 403(b) and 457(b) page covers them. The single withdrawal is what the IRA adds; its yearly charges are the other side of the same move, and what a rollover IRA costs compared with your old 401(k) lists those fees.

Sources

• https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plan-and-ira-required-minimum-distributions-faqs
• https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b
• https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/07/19/2024-14543/required-minimum-distributions