Clear Money Guide
What this guide covers
A quick view of the questions and evidence developed below.
Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: The shortfall carries a 25% excise tax — reduced from 50% by SECURE 2.0 — and reducible to 10% if the shortfall is distributed and a return reflecting the tax is submitted within the correction window. Relief for reasonable cause exists but has to be requested; it is not automatic.
Form 5329 for 2025, read code by code: Form 5329 lines 52 and 53 and Form 5329 lines 54 and 55.
Related reading on this site: RMD deadline for 2026.
The divisor table for the current year: the full 2026 RMD table, ages 72 to 120 and over.
More IRS forms and schedules, read line by line: Form 5330 instructions.
The formula and the form that reports the tax: Required Minimum Distribution 2026 and Form 5329 Explained.
The sequence
- Take the missed distribution immediately.
- File the reporting form for each year missed — one per year, not one in total.
- Request relief in writing with a short factual explanation and confirmation that the shortfall has been corrected.
The correction window ends on the earliest of the mailing of a notice of deficiency, the assessment of the tax, or the last day of the second taxable year that begins after the end of the taxable year in which the tax is imposed. Relief for reasonable error is requested by attaching a statement of explanation to Form 5329, as the Form 5329 instructions describe.
The most common cause
Multiple accounts, and the belief that taking a large distribution from one covers the others. For 401(k)s it does not — see which accounts actually aggregate. Someone with an IRA and two old 401(k)s can take far more than their total requirement and still have two shortfalls.
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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Figures verified against 26 U.S.C. 4974, the Instructions for Form 5329 (2025), the IRS RMD FAQs and 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-2 on September 29, 2026.
Prevention beats relief
Consolidate old employer plans before RMDs begin, and set custodian automatic distributions on every account that requires one separately.
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. Correction window from IRC 4974(e); waiver and reporting from the Instructions for Form 5329.
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.