How Should You Plan for a Year With Two RMDs?
The first required minimum distribution can create an unfamiliar choice. You may take it during the year it belongs to, or—if you qualify for the one-time first-year delay—wait until April 1 of the following year. Waiting can preserve cash or briefly defer taxable income, but it also places that first distribution alongside the next year’s regular RMD.
The result is not one larger RMD. It is two separately calculated obligations that become taxable in one calendar year. Planning starts by identifying both deadlines and testing how their combined income may change.
Why can two RMDs arrive in one year?
Under current law, many account owners begin lifetime RMDs at age 73; the applicable age rises to 75 for people born in 1960 or later. The applicable beginning date is generally April 1 of the calendar year after the year the person reaches the relevant age. A workplace plan may have a different beginning date when the still-working exception applies, subject to the plan and ownership rules.1
Suppose your first RMD belongs to Year 1. Taking it by December 31 of Year 1 keeps one distribution in each tax year. Using the permitted delay moves that first distribution to no later than April 1 of Year 2. Your Year 2 RMD does not move with it; that second amount remains due by December 31 of Year 2.2
By April 1
Delayed first RMD — calculated for the prior year
By December 31
Regular second RMD — calculated for the current year
One tax return receives both distributions
That combined income may affect tax brackets, Social Security taxation, Medicare IRMAA, withholding, charitable distributions, Roth conversions, and spendable cash.
Each amount is calculated independently, generally using the applicable prior December 31 balance and life-expectancy factor. The April payment does not replace, combine with, or reduce the December obligation. It merely changes when the first amount is distributed and taxed.
What can the combined income change?
Most traditional retirement-account distributions are included in ordinary income. Two RMDs can therefore use more of a tax bracket, increase the portion of Social Security benefits included in taxable income, and reduce room for other discretionary income. The effect is household-specific: deductions, filing status, pensions, investment income, and the size of both RMDs all matter.3
The same income can echo later. Medicare Part B and Part D income-related monthly adjustment amounts generally use modified adjusted gross income from two years earlier. A two-RMD year may therefore raise Medicare premiums two years later if income crosses an applicable threshold. This is a threshold test, not a reason by itself to reject the delay.4
Dovetail Principle: Timing Can Change Which Options Remain
The first-year option changes the payment date, not the number of annual obligations. Decide whether to delay only after placing both RMDs—and every tax-sensitive decision they touch—on the calendar that will report the income.
How should taxes and cash flow be coordinated?
Project the two distributions with the rest of the year before choosing payment dates. Compare taking the first RMD in Year 1 with delaying it into Year 2. Estimate federal and state tax, Social Security inclusion, potential IRMAA exposure, and how much net cash will remain after withholding. Then decide whether the distributions should fund spending, refill reserves, or move to a taxable account.
Withholding can be taken from an RMD, and federal withholding is generally treated as paid evenly through the year even when it occurs later. That can help address an underpayment projection, but it does not make excess income disappear. Quarterly estimated payments may still be useful, particularly for state taxes or when cash flow is easier to manage incrementally. Coordinate the percentage with the whole return rather than accepting a custodian default.5
Account boundaries still apply. Traditional, rollover, SEP, and SIMPLE IRA RMDs may generally be calculated separately, aggregated, and withdrawn from one or more of those IRAs. Eligible 403(b) amounts have their own aggregation group. Each 401(k), governmental 457(b), and most other employer plans generally must satisfy its own RMD. Extra money from an IRA does not repair an employer-plan shortfall.6
Which other planning choices need room?
If charitable giving is already intended, an eligible qualified charitable distribution made directly from an IRA can count toward that IRA’s RMD and generally stays out of adjusted gross income. Sequence matters: an ordinary IRA withdrawal already used to satisfy the RMD cannot later be relabeled as a QCD. Arrange charitable transfers before automatic distributions consume the obligation.7
Roth conversions require a similar sequence. The year’s RMD must be satisfied before additional pretax IRA dollars are converted, and the RMD itself cannot be converted. A two-RMD year may leave less desirable tax capacity for a conversion. Model the conversion alongside both distributions rather than treating it as a separate year-end decision.
When does delaying the first RMD fit?
Delay may fit when Year 1 income is unusually high, Year 2 income will otherwise be lower, or near-term cash timing matters. Taking the first RMD in Year 1 may fit when bunching both distributions would create a more expensive tax or Medicare result, interfere with charitable giving or Roth conversion plans, or produce more cash than the household wants at once.
The decision is not “delay whenever allowed.” Compare two complete calendar-year pictures, preserve the separate account calculations, choose withholding deliberately, and schedule both deadlines. The better path is the one that places required income where it supports the broader retirement plan with the fewest avoidable ripples.
For the account-by-account execution layer, read How Should You Plan RMDs Across Multiple Retirement Accounts?
