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Delayed Your RMD? How to Calculate Your 2025 RMD Before the April 1 Deadline.

March 18, 2026 — 08:50 pm EDT

Written by

Stefon Walters for

The Motley Fool->

Key Points

- You can delay your first required minimum distributions (RMDs) until April 1 of the year after you turn 73.

- Failing to take your RMDs will result in an initial penalty of 25% of the amount not withdrawn.

- If you delayed last year's RMD until this year, you'll still need to take this year's RMD by Dec. 31.

- The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook ›

After turning age 73, the IRS requires you to begin taking withdrawals from certain tax-deferred retirement accounts, like a 401(k), 403(b), or traditional IRA. They're called required minimum distributions (RMDs) because failing to take these withdrawals will result in a penalty.

The deadline to take RMDs is Dec. 31 for most people, except in the year someone turns 73. In that case, you can delay your RMDs until April 1 of the following year. For example, someone who turned 73 last year would have until April 1 of this year to take their RMDs.

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If you're someone who delayed their RMDs from last year until this year, here's how to calculate your RMD to ensure you can avoid an unnecessary penalty before the upcoming deadline.

Image source: Getty Images.

Determining how much you're required to withdraw

To calculate your RMD, you need to know the value of your accounts at the end of the previous year and your life expectancy factor (LEF), which the IRS provides for every age.

An important note regarding LEFs: Most people will use the Uniform Lifetime Table to determine their LEF. The one exception is if your spouse is your sole beneficiary and more than 10 years younger than you, in which case you would use the Joint Life Expectancy Table.

Once you know your account values and LEF, you find your RMD by dividing the account balance(s) by your LEF.

To see it in action, let's assume you're using the Uniform Lifetime Table and age 73 (the only age eligible to delay RMDs). Below is how much your RMDs would be based on the 26.5 LEF that corresponds with that age.

Account Value(s) at the End of 2025

RMD for Uniform Lifetime Table

$250,000

$9,434

$500,000

$18,868

$750,000

$28,302

$1 million

$37,736

$2 million

$75,472

$3 million

$113,208

Source: IRS. Table by author; RMDs rounded up to the nearest dollar.

The penalty for not taking your RMD

If you don't take your full RMD, the penalty is 25% of the amount you didn't withdraw. For instance, if you had $1 million in your 401(k) and were supposed to withdraw $37,736 but only withdrew $7,736, the penalty would be 25% of the $30,000 you didn't withdraw ($7,500).

If you take the appropriate RMD within two years of missing the deadline, the penalty could be reduced to 10%. In the above example, that would mean "only" owing $3,000 instead of $7,500, but ideally, you would be able to avoid this altogether by staying on top of your RMDs.

It's also important to note that even if you delayed last year's RMDs until this year, you'll still owe this year's RMDs by Dec. 31.

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