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Once an account owner reaches their required age, CoastMath takes a required minimum distribution from each of their traditional IRAs and traditional 401(k)s every year. The amount is the account’s balance on December 31 of the prior year divided by the Uniform Lifetime Table distribution period for the owner’s age that year.
The distribution comes out before the year’s income and spending are settled. It pays that year’s bills first, and anything you don’t spend is saved by your allocation rules. Its full amount is ordinary income, less any part a qualified charitable distribution covers.
The start age comes from the owner’s birth year. The first distribution is taken in the calendar year the owner reaches that age, and every year after.
| Owner born | First distribution year |
|---|---|
| 1950 or earlier | Already required in every plan year |
| 1951 through 1959 | The year the owner turns 73 |
| 1960 or later | The year the owner turns 75 |
Traditional IRAs and traditional 401(k)s owe distributions. Roth IRAs and Roth 401(k)s don’t while the owner is alive, and neither do HSAs, brokerage or cash accounts. Accounts you inherited follow the beneficiary rules instead, described in Inherited IRAs and 401(k)s.
Each account uses its owner’s age. An account owned by your partner starts on your partner’s birth year and uses your partner’s age for the divisor. If the plan models a partner’s death, the accounts pass to the survivor and follow the survivor’s age from then on (see When a partner dies).
To model a possible change in law, enter a different start age, from 70 to 80, for you or your partner. It replaces the age from the table above for that person’s own accounts, including the distribution owed in the year a partner dies. Accounts you inherited keep the beneficiary rules, which use the deceased owner’s age under current law. The table starts at 72, so 70 and 71 use 29.2 and 28.3 on its basis: joint life with a beneficiary ten years younger.
Required distribution=Account balance on December 31 of the prior year÷Distribution period for the owner’s age this year
The balance is the account’s value at the end of the previous plan year, before this year’s growth. The owner’s age is the age they reach during the calendar year.
In the plan’s first year, CoastMath rebuilds the prior year-end balance from the opening balance you entered: withdrawals you record as already taken this year are added back and contributions already made are removed. Those withdrawals also count toward the first year’s distribution, so only the rest comes out. Market movement since December 31 isn’t known and is ignored.
| Traditional IRA balance on December 31, 2025 | $500,000 | |
|---|---|---|
| ÷ | Distribution period at 73 | 26.5 |
| = | Required distribution for 2026 | $18,868 |
Each account is calculated separately and each pays its own amount. With several IRAs, the total matches the combined balance divided by the same period; the difference is only which account the money leaves.
| Age | Distribution period |
|---|---|
| 72 | 27.4 |
| 73 | 26.5 |
| 74 | 25.5 |
| 75 | 24.6 |
| 76 | 23.7 |
| 77 | 22.9 |
| 78 | 22.0 |
| 79 | 21.1 |
| 80 | 20.2 |
| 85 | 16.0 |
| 90 | 12.2 |
| 95 | 8.9 |
| 100 | 6.4 |
| 105 | 4.6 |
| 110 | 3.5 |
| 115 | 2.9 |
| 120 and older | 2.0 |
CoastMath uses every age in the table; 2.0 applies at 120 and older.
When the owner’s spouse is the account’s only beneficiary for the whole year and is more than 10 years younger, the law allows the Joint and Last Survivor table, which gives a longer period and a smaller distribution. CoastMath uses it only when you say so: open the traditional IRA or 401(k) and check Spouse is the sole beneficiary of this account. Without that, or when the spouse is 10 years younger or less, or the plan has no spouse, the Uniform Lifetime table above applies. The period is looked up from both people’s ages in the year, and a partner’s own account uses the partner’s age with the owner as the younger spouse.
| Balance on December 31 of the prior year | $500,000 | |
|---|---|---|
| ÷ | Joint and Last Survivor period at ages 75 and 62 | 26.8 |
| = | Required distribution | $18,656.72 |
The Uniform Lifetime period at 75 is 24.6, which would require $20,325.20.
Distributions are taken in the year’s required stage, after balances grow and before income, spending and savings. CoastMath treats the distribution as paid in equal monthly amounts over the year, so each month’s payment stops earning from the date it leaves the account. The account ends the year at its grown balance, less the distributions and the growth they would have earned.
The cash counts as income for the year. It pays that year’s spending alongside wages and benefits before any other account is drawn on, so a year with a large distribution often needs no other withdrawals.
Owner born 1953, 5% annual growth and no inflation. The distribution keeps rising because the divisor falls faster than the balance.
Show data
| Age | Required distribution |
|---|---|
| 73 | $18,868 |
| 74 | $19,832 |
| 75 | $20,760 |
| 76 | $21,730 |
| 77 | $22,644 |
| 78 | $23,696 |
| 79 | $24,793 |
| 80 | $25,937 |
| 81 | $26,990 |
| 82 | $28,226 |
| 83 | $29,346 |
| 84 | $30,678 |
| 85 | $31,861 |
| 86 | $33,071 |
| 87 | $34,305 |
| 88 | $35,300 |
| 89 | $36,565 |
| 90 | $37,531 |
| 91 | $38,469 |
| 92 | $39,367 |
| 93 | $40,214 |
| 94 | $40,562 |
A required distribution can’t be left in the account or converted to Roth. When it’s more than the year’s spending and taxes need, the excess is surplus: your allocation rules save it in order, and anything left over goes to the default destination shown under the rules. A Roth conversion in the same year comes out of the balance that remains after the distribution.
| Balance on December 31 of the prior year | $515,010 | |
|---|---|---|
| ÷ | Distribution period at 76 | 23.7 |
| = | Required distribution | $21,730 |
| − | Federal income tax for the year | $358 |
| − | Spending | $8,000 |
| = | Saved to a brokerage account by the allocation rule | $13,372 |
Single filer, no other income. The tax is on the distribution less the standard deduction and the additional deduction at 65.
The tax on a distribution is settled with the rest of the year’s tax, as described in Withholding, refunds and balances due.
A qualified charitable distribution from a traditional IRA counts toward that owner’s required distribution for the year, and the part it covers isn’t taxed. It offsets only the giving owner’s IRA distribution: never a 401(k) distribution, and never a partner’s. A gift larger than the owner’s required distribution comes out of that owner’s traditional IRAs as an additional withdrawal, still untaxed. Eligibility, the annual limit and how to set it up are in Charitable giving, donor-advised funds and QCDs.
The overview chart marks the year “RMDs begin” from your own birth year. Each year’s cash flow lists the distributions as “RMD” income, which also includes distributions from inherited accounts.