Once you turn 73, you no longer have complete control over when you take money from your retirement accounts. The IRS mandates required minimum distributions (RMDs) — annual withdrawals from all tax-deferred retirement accounts — and these can amount to thousands of dollars, depending on your age and account balances.
This could raise your tax bill, and it may have an unexpected effect on your Social Security benefits, too. Here’s what you need to know.
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How RMDs work
You calculate your RMDs by taking your account balance at the end of the previous year — Dec. 31, 2025, for 2026 RMDs — and dividing it by the applicable denominator in the IRS’ Uniform Lifetime Table. For example, if you have $100,000 in a traditional IRA and you’re 73 this year, you’d divide $100,000 by the 26.5 applicable denominator for 73-year-olds to get an RMD of about $3,774.
Then, you’d repeat this process for all other tax-deferred retirement accounts. You don’t have to take RMDs from Roth accounts, nor do you have to take one from your current 401(k) if you’re still working and own less than 5% of the company.
How your RMD could cost you Social Security benefits
If you’ve already withdrawn more than your RMDs to cover your living costs for the year, you may not notice a substantial change to your tax bill or your Social Security benefits in 2026. But if you don’t need the RMD funds and are just taking them to avoid a tax penalty, you could find yourself facing a higher tax bill than expected in 2026.
Your RMDs generally count toward your adjusted gross income (AGI), and your AGI plays a big part in your provisional income. This is what the government uses to determine how much of your Social Security benefits are subject to federal income tax. The table below breaks down what percentage of your benefits you could owe taxes on based on your provisional income and marital status.
Marital Status
0% of Benefits Taxable If Provisional Income Is Below:
Up to 50% of Benefits Taxable If Provisional Income Is Between:
Up to 85% of Benefits Taxable If Provisional Income Exceeds:
Single
$25,000
$25,000 and $34,000
$34,000
Married
$32,000
$32,000 and $44,000
$44,000
Data source: Social Security Administration.
The above thresholds are pretty low, and they’re not indexed for inflation, so it’s already challenging for many Americans to avoid benefit taxes altogether. Your RMD could make this problem even worse in 2026 by raising your AGI. This could force you to pay taxes on a larger percentage of your benefits than you did in years past.
You can hold on to some of those RMD funds for taxes, or you can contact the Social Security Administration and request that it withhold some of your checks to cover your benefit taxes. If it withholds too much, you’ll get the extra back with your 2026 tax refund.
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Taking an RMD in 2026? Here’s How It Could Affect Your Social Security Benefits was originally published by The Motley Fool
