Born in 1953? Your First RMD Is a Two-Year Decision

Originally published on the Golden Acre Notebook on October 6, 2026. Figures are for tax year 2026.

If you were born in 1953, you turn 73 this year and 2026 is the first year you owe a required minimum distribution from your IRA. You can take it by December 31, 2026, or wait until April 1, 2027, and waiting means two RMDs land on your 2027 return.

The April date looks like a gift of three extra months. Unless 2026 is an unusually high-income year for you, it is a tax bill moved into a worse year, and because Medicare reads your income two years back, the 2027 return also sets what you pay for Medicare in 2029.

Why the April date exists

The IRS calls April 1 of the year after you turn 73 your required beginning date. It applies to the first RMD only. Every RMD after that is due by December 31 of its own year.

The choice is narrow. Take the 2026 RMD in 2026 and you have one distribution on each return. Wait, and the 2026 RMD and the 2027 RMD both come out in 2027 and both count as 2027 income.

The rule covers anyone born between 1951 and 1959, whose RMD age is 73. If you were born in 1953, this is your year to decide.

How the first RMD is figured

Your 2026 RMD is your IRA balance on December 31, 2025, divided by a life-expectancy factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. At 73 that factor is 26.5, so each $100,000 in the account produces about $3,774 of required distribution. At 74 the factor drops to 25.5, which is why the second RMD is a little larger than the first.

If your spouse is your only beneficiary and more than ten years younger than you, a different table applies and the RMD is smaller.

If you hold several IRAs, you calculate the RMD for each one, add them up, and take the total from any of them. Workplace plans such as a 401(k) work differently. Each plan calculates and pays its own RMD, and if you are still working and do not own 5% or more of the company, that employer's plan generally does not require one until you retire. The still-working exception never applies to an IRA.

A worked example with 2026 numbers

Take a married couple in Scottsdale, both born in 1953. They have a pension of $97,500 and $50,000 of Social Security, and at their income level $42,500 of that Social Security is taxable. That puts their income at $140,000 before any IRA money. One spouse's IRA held $1.5 million on December 31, 2025.

The 2026 RMD is $1,500,000 divided by 26.5, or $56,604. Assume the account earns about what it pays out and is worth $1.5 million again at the end of 2026, which makes the 2027 RMD $1,500,000 divided by 25.5, or $58,824.

The 2027 tax figures have not been published, so the comparison below uses 2026 brackets and deductions for both years. Inflation will move the lines a little. It will not change the shape.

Take it in 2026. Income is $196,604 in 2026 and $198,824 in 2027. Both years sit inside the 22% bracket, and both keep part of the senior deduction, the $6,000-per-person deduction that phases out at 6% of income above $150,000 for a couple.

Wait until April 2027. Income is $140,000 in 2026 and $255,427 in 2027. The 2026 return leaves about $8,300 of the 12% bracket unused, and that room does not carry forward. The 2027 return runs past the top of the 22% bracket at $211,400 and pays 24% on about $8,500. Above $250,000 the senior deduction is gone entirely for both spouses.

Add the two years together and waiting costs this couple about $1,100 more in federal income tax. The Medicare cost is larger.

The Medicare bill in 2029

Medicare sets its income-related surcharge, known as IRMAA, from the return two years earlier. Your 2027 income decides your 2029 Part B and Part D premiums.

For 2026 the first surcharge tier starts at $218,000 for a married couple. A couple inside that first tier pays $284.10 a month each for Part B instead of the standard $202.90, and with the Part D surcharge that comes to roughly $1,148 per person for the year, or about $2,300 for the two of them.

The 2029 thresholds will not be published until late 2028. They rise with inflation, so treat any figure as an estimate. But the couple above would reach $255,427 in 2027 by waiting, which is $37,000 over today's line. The threshold would have to rise by about 17% in three years for them to stay under it. Taking the RMD on time keeps their 2027 income near $199,000, below the current line with room to spare.

The surcharge is not prorated. Crossing by a single dollar raises the premium for both spouses for all twelve months.

Put the two together and deferring costs this couple about $3,400, in exchange for three months of delay.

Arizona is the one place it does not matter

Arizona taxes IRA distributions at a flat 2.5%. A flat rate charges the same amount whether the income arrives in one year or two, so the state bill on $115,428 of RMDs is about $2,900 either way. The whole cost of waiting is federal tax plus Medicare.

When waiting is the right call

Waiting helps when 2026 is your expensive year and 2027 will be cheaper, by more than the extra RMD adds. That usually means one of these:

• You stopped working partway through 2026, so this year's return carries salary and next year's will not.

• You sold something large in 2026, such as a business, a rental property, or a concentrated stock position, and the gain has already pushed you into a higher bracket or over an IRMAA tier.

• 2026 already crosses an IRMAA threshold and 2027 will not, even with both RMDs stacked.

The test is to model both years side by side and compare the two-year total. Looked at alone, 2026 makes waiting look free every time.

What waiting does not buy you

Some people plan to wait on the RMD and use the quiet 2026 return for a Roth conversion instead. The rules do not allow it. The first dollars out of your IRA in a year you owe an RMD count toward that RMD, and 2026 is such a year even though you have until April to finish it. An RMD cannot be converted. So a 2026 conversion has to come after the 2026 RMD is out. The sizing questions in our Roth conversion post still apply, but only to dollars above the RMD.

If you give to charity, the RMD can go straight from the IRA to the charity as a qualified charitable distribution. That satisfies the RMD and keeps the money out of your income entirely. The ordering rule and the mid-November mail cutoff in our QCD post apply to first-year RMDs the same way.

What it costs to get this wrong

Missing the deadline costs more than choosing the wrong year. The penalty for an RMD not taken on time is a 25% excise tax on the shortfall, reduced to 10% if you correct it promptly.

For the couple above, a 2026 RMD of $56,604 missed on April 1, 2027 is a $14,151 penalty, or $5,660 if they fix it quickly. It is still taxable income when it finally comes out.

The April deadline is the easier one to miss. Every other RMD falls due at year-end, when custodians send reminders and families review their accounts. The first one, deferred, falls due in the middle of tax season, when attention is on last year's return. If you choose to wait, put April 1, 2027 on the calendar today and set the distribution up by early March.

What to do before December

Find your December 31, 2025 IRA balance for every IRA you own and divide by 26.5. That is your 2026 RMD. Decide whether 2026 or 2027 will be the higher-income year with the RMDs placed each way, and include the 2029 Medicare threshold in the comparison. If you give to charity, send that part as a QCD first. If you plan a Roth conversion this year, take the RMD before you convert.

I am an Enrolled Agent, admitted to practice before the Internal Revenue Service, and I prepare returns alongside the planning work, so the RMD decision and the two returns it touches get handled by the same person.

If you want your first RMD run against your own 2026 and 2027 returns before December, that is a conversation worth having.

Aaron Randak, CFP®, EA · Golden Acre Wealth Management · Scottsdale, Arizona

Golden Acre LLC dba Golden Acre Wealth Management is an investment adviser registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission, CRD #337930. This article is educational and is not individualized tax, investment, or legal advice. Tax rules change and their application depends on your specific circumstances. Medicare premium thresholds for 2029 have not been published; figures shown use 2026 amounts for illustration.