Part 7 of The Rule That Taxes Your Retirement. For most children who inherit an IRA, the lifetime stretch is gone: the account must be emptied within ten years, often during their highest-earning years. Who can still stretch, where a Roth fits, and the checklist to work through now.
Part 6 of The Rule That Taxes Your Retirement. If you give to charity anyway, a Qualified Charitable Distribution sends IRA money straight to the charity without it counting as your income, and it counts toward your RMD. Up to $111,000 a person in 2026, from age 70½.
Part 5 of The Rule That Taxes Your Retirement. An RMD is income, and income moves other numbers. Medicare sets its IRMAA surcharge from your tax return two years earlier, so a 2026 RMD can raise your 2028 premiums. The first lines, and what it costs a couple to cross one.
Part 4 of The Rule That Taxes Your Retirement. A missed RMD used to cost half of what you should have taken. Today it's 25%, or 10% if you fix it in time, and the IRS can waive it entirely. Why a review before December 31 matters.
Part 3 of The Rule That Taxes Your Retirement. Your RMD is one division: last December's balance divided by a factor from an IRS table. On a $1,000,000 IRA, that's about $37,700 at 73 and about $82,000 at 90. Plus the rules that trip people up.
Part 2 of The Rule That Taxes Your Retirement. For 45 years the starting age was 70½. Now it's 73 or 75, depending on the year you were born. The age ladder, the first-year catch that can mean two RMDs in one year, and the still-working exception.