Sarah Brenner, JD
Director of Retirement Education
The rules for required minimum distributions (RMDs) can be complicated and, under the law, the responsibility to get it right rests with the IRA owner. If you are required to take an RMD from your IRA for 2026, you should watch out for an important RMD communication that your IRA custodian is required to send to you by January 31, 2026. Your RMD statement includes critical information that can help you get your 2026 RMD right and avoid penalties.
Early Reminder
The RMD statement is an early reminder that you have an RMD for 2026. Statistics consistently show that many IRA owners do not take their RMDs. The IRS requirement that custodians send RMD statements is designed in part to improve those statistics. Your RMD statement puts you on notice at the beginning of 2026 that you have an RMD for the year.
RMD Deadline
The RMD statement will also tell you the deadline for taking your 2026 RMD. If you attain age 73 in 2026, this is your first distribution calendar year; your statement will tell you that your deadline for taking your 2026 RMD is April 1, 2027. If 2026 is not your first distribution calendar year, your statement will tell you that your RMD deadline is December 31, 2026.
Amount of RMD
Your RMD statement may include an RMD amount for 2026. Some IRA custodians do this calculation for you. Other IRA custodians include a statement offering to calculate your RMD upon request.
Reporting to the IRS
The statement will tell you that the IRA custodian will be reporting the fact that you have an RMD for 2026 to the IRS. Consider yourself warned that the IRS has been informed that you must take a 2026 RMD!
No RMD Statements for Beneficiaries
If you are an IRA beneficiary, you may have to take an RMD from an inherited IRA for 2026. Currently, the IRS does not require IRA custodians to send RMD statements to beneficiaries. A beneficiary will not receive an RMD statement but may still need to take a 2026 RMD.
May Be Included with FMV Statements
IRA custodians are required to provide IRA owners with the December 31, 2025 fair market value (FMV) of their IRAs by January 31, 2026. Your IRA sponsor may include your RMD statement with the FMV statement.
Default Calculation Use
Be careful! While your IRA custodian may provide you with your calculated RMD amount, your custodian is permitted to use certain defaults in the calculation. They may use the December 31, 2025 balance without any adjustments and may use the Uniform Lifetime Table. For most IRA owners, this will result in an accurate RMD calculation, but for some it will not. If you had an outstanding rollover or transfer, or if your spouse is the sole beneficiary of your IRA and is more than ten years younger than you, you will need to adjust the calculation to find your actual RMD for 2026.
Information Purposes
You do not need to file the RMD statement with your tax return. Take a few minutes to read through your statement and be sure there are no errors. If you have any questions about the statement or your RMD in general, you may want to consult with a knowledgeable advisor.
If you have technical questions you would like to have answered, be sure to submit them to mailbag@irahelp.com, to be answered on an upcoming Slott Report Mailbag, published every Thursday.
https://irahelp.com/how-your-rmd-statement-can-help-you/