IRA Withdrawal Calculator 2026: Tax, 10% Penalty, Withholding

Updated October 4, 2026. Quick answer: Withdrawing from a traditional IRA adds the taxable part to your 2026 income and taxes it in the brackets it fills, then adds a 10% additional tax on that part if you are under 59 1/2 with no exception; your IRA custodian withholds 10% unless you choose another rate. Calculated for a single filer with $45,000 of other taxable income who withdraws $20,000 at 45 from a traditional IRA with no basis pays $3,860 (computed) of federal income tax ($5,400 at 12% and $14,600 at 22%, computed from Revenue Procedure 2025-32) plus $2,000 of additional tax, $5,860 in all (computed), and receives $18,000 after the $2,000 withheld, which leaves $3,860 owed at filing (computed). A Roth IRA works differently: your regular contributions come out first, tax free. Enter your own numbers below.

Calculate the tax on your IRA withdrawal

This page prices a withdrawal. It does not tell you whether to take one, or whether a rollover or a transfer is the better move. The result runs on this page and sends nothing anywhere. Your other taxable income is the figure on your 2026 return after the standard or itemized deduction and before this withdrawal. The 2026 standard deductions are in the IRS release: “For tax year 2026, the standard deduction increases to $32,200 for married couples filing jointly. For single taxpayers and married individuals filing separately, the standard deduction rises to $16,100 for tax year 2026, and for heads of households, the standard deduction will be $24,150.”

The federal brackets are the 2026 tables in Revenue Procedure 2025-32. The withholding rate is yours to set. The calculator applies it to the whole withdrawal; the Form W-4R instructions apply it to the taxable amount, so a custodian that knows part of your payment is tax free will withhold less. State tax is a rate you enter, applied to the taxable part, because states differ.

IRA withdrawal tax and the 10% penalty, bracket by bracket

Three separate things happen to a taxable IRA withdrawal. First, the taxable part is income. Second, the section 72(t) additional tax: “you’ll be assessed a 10% additional tax on early distributions from traditional and Roth IRAs, unless an exception applies.” It lands only on the taxable part: “The 10% additional tax applies to the part of the distribution that you have to include in gross income.” Third, the custodian withholds: “The payor of any nonperiodic distribution (as defined in subsection (e)(3)) shall withhold from such distribution an amount equal to 10 percent of such distribution.” You may change that: “An individual may elect not to have paragraph (1) apply with respect to any nonperiodic distribution.” The withholding is a prepayment, not the tax. The income tax is progressive, so the taxable part is taxed in slices, starting where your other income ends.

1. Work out the taxable part of the withdrawal (all of it, unless you have basis in a traditional IRA or are taking a Roth).
2. Take your other 2026 taxable income and add the taxable part.
3. Compute the 2026 tax on the larger figure and on your other income alone, from your filing status’s table. The difference is the federal income tax on the withdrawal.
4. If you are under 59 1/2, add 10% of the taxable part that does not meet an exception.

Worked example, single filer, $45,000 of other taxable income, $20,000 withdrawn at age 45 from a traditional IRA with no basis and no exception. The first $5,400 fills the 12% bracket (income up to $50,400): $5,400 x 12% = $648 (computed). The remaining $14,600 is taxed at 22%: $14,600 x 22% = $3,212 (computed). Federal income tax is $3,860, the 10% additional tax is $2,000 (10% x $20,000), and the total is $5,860 (computed). The default 10% withholding is $2,000, so $3,860 is still owed when you file (computed).

2026 federal tax brackets used

The calculator reads these thresholds from the 2026 tax rate tables in Revenue Procedure 2025-32; the single and joint thresholds match the IRS news release IR-2025-103. The rate applies only to income above the threshold.

What a $20,000 IRA withdrawal costs at different incomes

Single filer, traditional IRA with no basis, under 59 1/2, no exception, 10% withheld. The same withdrawal costs more as it lands in higher brackets.

Nondeductible contributions: the tax-free share of a traditional IRA withdrawal (Form 8606)

If you have ever made nondeductible contributions to a traditional IRA, part of each withdrawal is a return of that basis. The IRS puts it plainly: “Until all of your basis has been distributed, each distribution is partly nontaxable and partly taxable.” The split is pro rata across all your traditional IRAs, not a choice of which dollars you take out. Worksheet 1-1 in Publication 590-B figures it: add the value of all your traditional IRAs at the end of the year to the year’s withdrawals, divide your total basis by that sum (“Divide line 3 by line 6. Enter the result as a decimal (rounded to at least three places).”), and multiply the withdrawal by the result to get the tax-free part. The calculator does the same division exactly and rounds the dollar result once to the cent.

Check against the IRS’s own example in Publication 590-B, calculated here: Rose Green has $2,300 of basis, her traditional IRAs are worth $20,000 at year end and she took $5,000 out. $2,300 divided by $25,000 is 0.092, so, computed, $460 of the $5,000 is tax free and $4,540 is taxable (computed), the same $460 and $4,540 the publication shows. Enter those figures in the calculator with a $5,000 withdrawal and you get the same split.

Here is how a $20,000 withdrawal splits when the IRAs are worth $80,000 at year end (so the ratio denominator is $100,000), by the basis you carry. Single filer, $45,000 other income, under 59 1/2, no exception:

The basis itself is tracked on Form 8606. A backdoor Roth conversion triggers the same pro rata rule, worked on the backdoor Roth pro rata calculator.

Roth IRA withdrawals: contributions come out first

A Roth IRA withdrawal is taxed only to the extent it is not a return of what you put in. “You don’t include in your gross income qualified distributions or distributions that are a return of your regular contributions from your Roth IRA(s).” A distribution is qualified when “It is made after the 5-year period beginning with the first tax year for which a contribution was made to a Roth IRA set up for your benefit.” and it is made on or after age 59 1/2, because of disability, to a beneficiary after death, or for a first home (up to $10,000 over your lifetime). When it is not qualified, the IRS orders it: “There is a set order in which contributions (including conversion contributions and rollover contributions from qualified retirement plans) and earnings are considered to be distributed from your Roth IRA.” The calculator uses the first and last steps of that order: your regular contributions come out first, tax and penalty free, and what is left is earnings, taxed as income and subject to the 10% additional tax unless you are 59 1/2 or an exception applies. It does not handle conversions or rollover contributions into the Roth.

Worked example: single filer, $45,000 of other taxable income, age 40, a $15,000 withdrawal from a Roth IRA with $10,000 of regular contributions left and a non-qualified distribution. $10,000 is a return of contributions and $5,000 is earnings. The earnings fill the 12% bracket, so the calculated federal tax is $600, 10% additional tax $500, total $1,100 (computed). A qualified distribution of the same amount costs nothing:

When the 10% early withdrawal penalty does not apply

The additional tax is for early distributions: “made on or after the date on which the employee attains age 59½” is outside it, as are distributions “attributable to the employee’s being disabled”. The IRS lists the IRA exceptions: “Not in excess of $10,000 used in a qualified first-time home purchase”; “Not in excess of your qualified higher education expenses”; and “Made because you’re totally and permanently disabled”. Some are capped at an amount, so they exempt part of a withdrawal, not all of it. That is why the calculator asks for the dollar part that meets an exception and takes it off the taxable amount before charging the 10%. The age-55 exception that helps with an employer plan, a distribution “made to an employee after separation from service after attainment of age 55”, does not reach an IRA: “Subparagraphs (A)(v) and (C) of paragraph (2) shall not apply to distributions from an individual retirement plan.”

The same single filer with $45,000 of other income and a $20,000 traditional withdrawal, by exception:

The exceptions are narrower than they sound and each has conditions. They are set out on the early withdrawal penalty exceptions page. A series of substantially equal payments is a way around the 10% that comes with its own rules, priced on the 72(t) calculator.

10% withholding is not the tax you owe

IRA withdrawals are paid on request, so the custodian treats them as nonperiodic: “Your payer must withhold at a default 10% rate from the taxable amount of nonperiodic payments unless you enter a different rate on line 2.” The form also warns “Note that the default rate of withholding may not be appropriate for your tax situation.” In the worked example the 10% withheld is $2,000 against $5,860 of federal tax and additional tax, so $3,860 more is due when you file (computed). Enter the rate your custodian actually withholds in the calculator. If you move money to another retirement account instead, the rules differ: a tax-free rollover is not a withdrawal and does not use this page.

Three choices the tax number does not make

1. Withdraw, roll over or leave it. A direct transfer or a timely rollover to another IRA or plan is not a taxable withdrawal, and nothing here compares those choices on fees, investments or creditor protection.

2. Which year and which income. The tax above depends on the other income in the same year. A withdrawal in a year with less other income fills lower brackets, and spreading a large withdrawal across two tax years can keep more of it out of the higher ones. The table above shows the cost per bracket; it does not choose the year for you. Comparing a withdrawal with a Roth conversion is on the Roth conversion bracket calculator.

3. How you take it. Taking only what you need, in a year an exception applies, or through a series of equal payments can remove the 10% additional tax but never the income tax. Several of these are on the retirement withdrawals guide hub. An employer plan has its own rules and its own calculator: the 401(k) withdrawal calculator.

Where this calculator stops

It prices a withdrawal as ordinary income. For a traditional IRA it handles one pool of basis (all traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs together, as the form does) and does not handle amounts converted to a Roth in the same year, qualified charitable distributions, inherited IRAs, or required minimum distributions. For a Roth IRA it does not handle conversion or rollover contributions, the separate 5-year recapture period on them, or earnings ordering beyond contributions then earnings. It also does not handle the net investment income tax, the interaction with Social Security taxation, capital gains rates, credit and deduction phase-outs, or the alternative minimum tax. It does not compute state tax; it multiplies the rate you enter by the taxable part. The result is an estimate, and the IRS and your custodian decide the actual amounts.

Common mistakes

• Treating the 10% withholding as the tax. The tax is the bracket math plus any 10% additional tax; the withholding only prepays it.
• Entering your salary as other taxable income. Use taxable income after the standard or itemized deduction.
• Forgetting that the withdrawal stacks on top of your other income, so its first dollars are taxed at your top bracket, not your average rate.
• Assuming you can take your nondeductible basis out first. Across all your traditional IRAs the tax-free share of every withdrawal is the same pro rata fraction.
• Assuming a Roth withdrawal is always tax free. Only a return of regular contributions or a qualified distribution is.
• Assuming an exception covers the whole withdrawal when it is capped, such as the $10,000 first-time home purchase exception.

Related: early withdrawal penalty exceptions, Form 8606, the 401(k) withdrawal calculator, the 72(t) calculator, and the RMD calculator.

Sources

• Internal Revenue Code section 72, 26 U.S.C. 72 (govinfo): https://www.govinfo.gov/link/uscode/26/72 (section page)
• Internal Revenue Code section 3405, 26 U.S.C. 3405 (govinfo): https://www.govinfo.gov/link/uscode/26/3405 (section page)
• IRS Topic no. 557, Additional tax on early distributions from traditional and Roth IRAs: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc557
• IRS Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs): https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b
• IRS Form W-4R, Withholding Certificate for Nonperiodic Payments and Eligible Rollover Distributions: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4r.pdf
• IRS news release IR-2025-103, tax year 2026 inflation adjustments: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-releases-tax-inflation-adjustments-for-tax-year-2026-including-amendments-from-the-one-big-beautiful-bill
• IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (2026 inflation adjustments): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-32.pdf

Read from the Internal Revenue Code sections, the IRS pages and Revenue Procedure linked above on October 4, 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and your plan administrator, a tax professional or a benefits advisor is the right place to confirm anything consequential.