Retirees Taking 1st RMDs Must Do So by April 1

The deadline for most retirees who turned 73 in 2024 to begin withdrawing their first required minimum distribution from their retirement plan is April 1, per Internal Revenue Service rules. In following years, RMDs must be taken by December 31.

The RMD rule applies to owners of multiple types of individual retirement accounts: traditional, Simplified Employee Pension and Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees. It also applies to participants in 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans. Roth IRA participants are exempt. Although RMDs are usually taken by the end of the year, retirees who reach age 73 are allowed to delay their first withdrawal until April 1 of the following year.

However, the IRS is reminding retirees who take their first distribution by April 1 that they must also take their second RMD before the end of the year and that both are taxable in 2025. Additionally, IRA trustees are required to either notify IRA owners of their RMD amount or offer to calculate the distribution amount.

According to the IRS, the RMD is calculated by dividing the account balance as of the end of the immediately preceding calendar year—2023, for those who turned 73 last year—by the distribution period listed in the IRS’s “Uniform Lifetime Table.” The IRS also provides RMD worksheets to help retirees calculate the RMD.

For those taking a 2024 required minimum distribution, the IRS suggests consulting the life expectancy tables in Appendix B of publication 590‑B, “Distributions from IRAs.” The IRS notes that Table III shows that the RMD for someone 73 years old in 2024 is typically based on a 26.5-year distribution period and that the balance as of December 31, 2023, should be divided by 26.5 to calculate the 2024 RMD.