Required Minimum Distributions: Take Them Right and Avoid the Excise Tax
Every account subject to required minimum distributions has met its exact figure by its deadline for the year, the withdrawals and any qualified charitable distributions are reported correctly on the federal return, and a missed distribution, if one surfaces, has been corrected and documented through Form 5329.
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Who it's for
Retirees approaching or past RMD age who hold traditional, SEP or SIMPLE IRAs and old 401(k)-style plans left with previous employers — including anyone who has just realized a deadline slipped and needs the correction route.
About this playbook
A practical walkthrough of the mandatory withdrawal years: identify which of the accounts scattered across former employers actually force distributions, compute each amount with the IRS uniform lifetime table, and get every withdrawal out by its deadline. The path runs from a full account inventory through calculation, qualified charitable distributions, withholding decisions and a December 31 reconciliation, ending with clean reporting on Form 1040 and a Form 5329 repair path if a distribution was missed. Figures come straight from current IRS publications — the age 73 starting age, the $111,000 QCD ceiling for 2026, the 25% excise tax and its 10% reduced rate. The guide follows owner lifetime RMD rules; inherited-account regimes, state income tax and strategy questions such as Roth conversions stay outside its scope.
What you'll do, step by stepFree preview
Only a sample is open: 4 of 24 steps can be read in full. The rest unlock when you buy.
Phase 1: Map every account that can force a withdrawal
6 stepsPhase 2: Calculate each account’s required amount
5 stepsPhase 3: Direct the money: QCDs, withholding and withdrawal requests
5 stepsPhase 4: Close out December 31 with proof in hand
3 stepsPhase 5: Report the distributions and repair any miss
5 steps
Details
What you need first
Access to each custodian’s statements or website (especially prior December 31 balances), date of birth, spouse’s age and beneficiary designations where relevant, a calculator or spreadsheet, and awareness of which accounts were inherited rather than owned; tax software is only needed in the final phase.
