Clear Money Guide
What this guide covers
A quick view of the questions and evidence developed below.
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Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: IRAs aggregate: compute the required amount across all of them and take the total from whichever you like. 401(k)s do not. Each employer plan requires its own separate distribution, and taking extra from an IRA does not cover a 401(k) shortfall.
Form 5329 for 2025, read code by code: Form 5329 lines 52 and 53 and Form 5329 lines 54 and 55.
Related guides on this topic: Moving an Inherited IRA, The Beneficiary Mistakes That Cost the Most (2026) and Missed an Inherited IRA RMD? (2026).
The full RMD rule in one place: Required Minimum Distribution 2026.
Plan the withdrawal, not just the minimum
A required distribution is the floor rather than the plan, and an adviser can look at how the withdrawal interacts with your bracket, your Medicare premiums and your other accounts before a deadline decides it for you.
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The rule that surprises people
Related guides: State tax on 401(k) and IRA withdrawals and State withholding on retirement withdrawals.
| Account type | Aggregate? | Practical effect |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional IRAs (incl. SEP, SIMPLE) | Yes | Total across all, take from any |
| 401(k), 403(b) with other 401(k)s | No | Each plan separately |
| 403(b)s with other 403(b)s | Generally yes | Aggregate within the type |
| Inherited accounts with your own | Never | Entirely separate — see below |
Someone with three old 401(k)s from three employers must take three separate distributions. Taking the whole amount from the largest leaves shortfalls on the other two, each attracting the excise tax — and the account statements will not warn you, because no custodian sees the others.
Where this rule earns its keep: when one IRA holds something that does not divide neatly. An account holding physical precious metal cannot produce a precise required amount without selling metal at the dealer’s buyback price — but because traditional IRAs aggregate, the required amount attributable to it can usually be taken from a different IRA and the metal left alone. RMDs with a gold IRA.
Why consolidating before 73 is worth doing
Rolling old employer plans into one IRA converts a multi-account compliance problem into a single calculation. The window to do that cleanly is before RMDs begin — rolling in an RMD year has its own ordering rules.
See the basics and estimator for the underlying calculation this all sits on.
Figures verified against the IRS RMD FAQs, Publication 590-B, 26 CFR 1.408-8 and 1.403(b)-6, and IRC section 4974 on September 29, 2026.
Sources
IRC §401(a)(9) (required minimum distributions); IRC §408(d)(8) (qualified charitable distributions); IRC §4974 (excise tax on shortfalls, as amended by SECURE 2.0); SECURE Act (2019) and SECURE 2.0 (2022); final RMD regulations published 19 July 2024. Cross-checked July 2026 against professional analyses. Indexed dollar limits and correction windows are described rather than asserted.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice.
Related
The first one is the only one you may postpone: taking it by December 31 against delaying to April 1 — delaying stacks two distributions into one tax year and makes the second one larger, because the balance was never reduced before it was computed.
Once distributions start, the order you draw from each account matters; see withdrawal order once RMDs have started.