At 73 the IRS Will Only Ask Him for 3.77% of the IRA. The Table It Uses Will Give Him 27 More Years to Empty It, and That’s Why Most of the Money Will Never Have to Leave

If you own a traditional IRA and turn 73 this year, the IRS now requires an annual withdrawal called a required minimum distribution (RMD). The rule asks for less than most retirees expect. The IRS Uniform Lifetime Table sets that first withdrawal at about 3.77% of the account balance. Because the table resets to a new factor every year, the formula never forces the IRA to zero while you are alive.

How a 26.5 Divisor Keeps Most of Your IRA Invested

Your RMD equals the IRA balance on December 31 of the prior year divided by a “distribution period” from the IRS table. At age 73, that factor is 26.5. On a $500,000 IRA, the first RMD works out to about $18,868. The factor looks like a 26-year countdown, but you look up a fresh number each year at your new age, and it decreases slowly over time.

At 80 the factor falls to 20.2, translating to about 5% of the balance. At 90 it is 12.2, or roughly 8.2%. Even at 100 the factor is still 6.4, so the IRS is asking for about 15.6%. Because the required share is always a fraction of whatever remains, the account never reaches zero on schedule. In any year your investments earn more than the required withdrawal percentage, the balance can actually end the year higher than it started.

A common source of confusion: some charts list a factor of 27.4, which equals a 3.65% withdrawal rate. That row belongs to age 72 in the current table. Retirees who turned 73 on or after January 1, 2023 use the 26.5 row, making their first mandatory withdrawal rate 3.77%.

Where the IRS Wrote This Down

The factor comes from Treasury Regulation §1.401(a)(9)-9(c), the Uniform Lifetime Table. That regulation carries out Internal Revenue Code §401(a)(9), which applies to IRAs through §408(a)(6). The table is constructed around an owner with a hypothetical beneficiary 10 years younger, which is why it produces relatively generous factors regardless of who your actual beneficiary is or whether you have named one at all.

By comparison, the Single Life Table in the same regulation gives a 73-year-old a factor of just 16.4, which works out to about 6.1%. That table applies to most inherited IRAs, not to original owners. The SECURE 2.0 Act raised the RMD starting age to 73 and schedules a further increase to 75 for anyone born in 1960 or later, effective January 1, 2033. Because a person born in 1960 does not turn 75 until 2035, the first actual RMDs under the age-75 rule will arrive in 2035, not 2033.

Who Qualifies for the Smaller Withdrawals

• Covered: Owners of traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs who reach 73, whether or not they name a beneficiary.
• Even smaller RMDs: Owners whose spouse is more than 10 years younger and is the only beneficiary. They use the Joint and Last Survivor Table instead, which carries a larger factor and produces a smaller required withdrawal.
• Excluded: People with inherited IRAs, who follow separate beneficiary rules.
• Not required to withdraw: Original owners of Roth IRAs, who take no lifetime RMDs.

Running Your 2026 Numbers in Five Steps

1. Pull the December 31, 2025 balance for each traditional IRA you own.
2. Divide each balance by the factor for the age you reach in 2026. At 73, that factor is 26.5.
3. Add the results together. The IRS lets you take the combined total from any one IRA or spread it across several. 401(k) RMDs must be calculated and withdrawn separately for each plan.
4. Withdraw that amount by December 31. Your first RMD can wait until April 1 of the following year, though doing so creates a two-RMD year (see below).
5. Leave the rest invested. Repeat each year with the new factor and the new year-end balance.

Deadlines and Penalties to Plan Around

Waiting until April 1 for your first RMD comes at a real cost. You still owe the second RMD by December 31 of that same year, so two taxable withdrawals land on a single tax return. That can push you into a higher bracket and raise income-based costs such as Medicare premiums.

Missing an RMD entirely triggers a 25% excise tax on the shortfall. SECURE 2.0 cut that rate from 50%, effective for 2023. If you catch the mistake and fix the shortfall within the two-year correction window, the penalty drops further to 10%.

Money left in the IRA still faces ordinary income tax eventually. Most non-spouse heirs must empty an inherited IRA by the end of the 10th year after the owner’s death, so a modest balance today can become a large, rapid withdrawal for your heirs. Consider planning ahead using the strategies covered in our free guide on the first-year tax bomb. And keep in mind that those born in 1960 or later will not begin RMDs until age 75, with the first such distributions due in 2035, giving younger savers additional years of tax-deferred growth.

Editor’s note: This update corrects the withdrawal rate at age 73 from 3.65% to 3.77%, reflecting the correct IRS Uniform Lifetime Table factor of 26.5 at that age (the 3.65% figure corresponds to age 72, where the factor is 27.4). The article also clarifies that while the SECURE 2.0 Act age-75 rule takes effect January 1, 2033, the first actual RMDs under that rule will not arrive until 2035, the year those born in 1960 turn 75.

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