Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: If you were relying on the still-working exception and retire after your required beginning age, an RMD from that plan is generally due for the year you retire — a year that often still contains most of a salary, stacking the two together.
Why the timing bites
Retiring in October means roughly ten months of salary plus a plan RMD in the same tax year. The distribution you were deferring arrives in one of your highest-income years rather than one of your lowest.
Retiring in early January instead of late December can move the RMD into a year with almost no earned income. Where the retirement date is genuinely flexible, that is one of the largest single-decision tax savings available in retirement planning — and it is decided by a date on a resignation letter.
The first-year deferral option
A first RMD can generally be deferred into the following year, but doing so puts two distributions in that year. Whether that helps depends on which year has more other income — see the first-RMD timing analysis.
Coordinate with the rollover decision
Rolling the plan to an IRA in the same year has ordering rules of its own, and an RMD generally cannot be rolled over. Take the RMD first, then roll the remainder.
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.