What age do TSP required minimum distributions start?

It depends on your birth year. SECURE 2.0 section 107 raised the age to 73, and to 75 for anyone born in 1960 or later. TSP administers it in two bands and states them plainly in TSPBK26: born before 1960, your RMD age is 73; born 1960 or later, it is 75. There is a second condition people forget. A TSP RMD does not begin until you have both reached that age and separated from federal service, so a 76 year old still on the payroll owes nothing from the TSP.

How is the TSP RMD actually calculated?

One division. TSP takes your traditional balance as of December 31 of the prior year and divides it by the distribution period for the age you reach during the current year, read from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table. The booklet works the example itself: a participant who reaches 75 with $246,000 on the prior December 31 has a period of 24.6 years, so the RMD is $246,000 divided by 24.6, which is $10,000. Nothing about your contributions, your returns, or your current balance enters it.

Does Roth TSP have a required minimum distribution?

Not during your lifetime, and not since 2024. SECURE 2.0 section 325 removed pre-death RMDs from designated Roth accounts. TSPBK26 puts it directly: the RMD calculation includes only your traditional balance, and distributions of Roth money do not count toward satisfying the RMD. A large Roth balance therefore does nothing to your required amount, which is one of the strongest arguments for converting before your RMD age.

When is my first RMD actually due?

April 1 of the year after your first distribution calendar year, which the IRS calls your required beginning date. Every RMD after that is due December 31 of its own year. The trap is in the second year: if you delay the first RMD to the April 1 deadline, both the first and the second land inside the same tax year, and two years of required income stacked together can move you up a bracket or past an IRMAA threshold.

What is the penalty for missing a TSP RMD?

An excise tax of 25% of the amount you should have taken, under 26 U.S.C. 4974 as amended by SECURE 2.0 section 302. It drops to 10% if you correct the shortfall and file inside the correction window. TSP says it will send your RMD automatically by the deadline, so the usual cause of a miss is not forgetfulness. It is a wrong date of birth in your TSP record, or an agency that reported your separation late. Both are worth checking in My Account before you turn 73.

Can a younger spouse reduce my RMD?

Yes, in one specific situation. If your spouse is your sole designated beneficiary AND is more than 10 years younger than you, Treasury regulation 1.401(a)(9)-5(c)(2) lets you use the Joint Life and Last Survivor Table instead of the Uniform Lifetime Table. The period is longer, so the required amount is smaller. At 73 with a 55 year old spouse the factor is 32.6 rather than 26.5, which cuts the RMD on a $500,000 balance by about $3,500. A gap of exactly 10 years does not qualify.

Does a Roth conversion satisfy my RMD?

No, and TSPBK26 says so explicitly: a Roth in-plan conversion does not satisfy the RMD because the money never leaves your TSP account. You have to take the RMD out first, in cash, and then convert anything beyond it. The same logic applies to rollovers. An RMD is not eligible to roll over to an IRA or another employer plan, so you cannot shelter it by moving it.

Why does the required percentage rise every year?

Because the distribution period shrinks as you age. At 73 you divide by 26.5, which is 3.77% of the balance. At 80 you divide by 20.2, or 4.95%. At 90 you divide by 12.2, or 8.20%. The ten year table in this calculator shows that share climbing alongside the dollar amount, which is the part that catches people planning around a flat withdrawal rate.

Calculator

TSP Required Minimum Distribution

Find your RMD age, your first deadline, and the exact amount the IRS tables require out of your traditional TSP balance this year. Then look ten years ahead, because the required share of your balance rises every single year while the distribution period shrinks.

Reviewed by Jonathan D., 20-year federal employee · Formulas verified against IRS and TSP.gov · Updated October 2026

Rule snapshot

Reviewed October 3, 2026 · Sources: Treas. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-9 (IRS life expectancy tables), IRS Pub 590-B, TSP: Tax Rules about TSP Payments (TSPBK26), 26 U.S.C. 4974 (excise tax) · Inputs stay in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server or saved.

Your account and your age

Traditional balance on Dec 31 last yearThe RMD is always calculated from the prior December 31 balance, not from today.

Roth balance (optional)Roth TSP has no lifetime RMD since 2024. We show it so you can see it excluded.

Year you were bornBorn before 1960, your RMD age is 73. Born 1960 or later, it is 75.

Distribution yearThe calendar year the distribution would come out.

Projection return (%)Used only for the ten year table. It does not change this year's RMD.

I have separated from federal service. TSP RMDs do not begin until you have both reached your RMD age and left government.My spouse is my sole beneficiary and is more than 10 years younger than me. This is the only situation where the Joint Life table may be used, and it lowers the RMD.

What this models, and what it does not

Read the second list before you act on the number.

What this models

RMD age 73 for anyone born before 1960 and 75 for 1960 or later, which is how TSP administers SECURE 2.0 section 107
The separation condition. A TSP RMD does not begin until you have both reached the age and left federal service
The prior December 31 traditional balance as the divisor base, per Treasury regulation 1.401(a)(9)-5(b)(1)
The full IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, ages 72 through 120 and older
The Joint Life and Last Survivor Table when a sole beneficiary spouse is more than 10 years younger
The April 1 required beginning date and the warning that two RMDs can land in the second year
Roth TSP excluded entirely, under SECURE 2.0 section 325
The 25 percent excise tax on a missed RMD and the 10 percent corrected figure
A ten year projection at an editable return, showing the required share of the balance climbing

Not modeled

The tax on the RMD itself. Use the TSP Withdrawal Tax Calculator for that
Inherited and beneficiary participant accounts. Those run on different tables and a different timetable, and the Single Life Table applies instead
RMDs from IRAs or other employer plans. Each plan computes and pays its own, and a TSP RMD cannot be aggregated with an IRA RMD
The still-working exception for other employer plans. It is not relevant here because TSP already requires separation
Qualified charitable distributions, which can satisfy an RMD without adding taxable income
Precision limit: ages are whole years, matching how the IRS tables and TSP both work. A birthday late in the year does not change the factor
Precision limit: the projection assumes one constant return and one RMD a year taken at year start. Real sequencing will differ
Precision limit: the embedded Joint Life subset covers owner ages 72 to 110 against spouse ages 20 and up. Outside that range the tool falls back to the Uniform Lifetime factor rather than guessing

The required share climbs, which is the part that surprises people

A required minimum distribution is not a fixed percentage. The IRS divides your balance by a distribution period that shrinks every year you age, so the share you must take out rises on a schedule you cannot change. At 73 you divide by 26.5, which is 3.77 percent. At 80 you divide by 20.2, or 4.95 percent. At 90 the divisor is 12.2 and the required share is 8.20 percent.

That matters for anyone who planned retirement income around a flat four percent withdrawal. The RMD overtakes four percent at 79 and keeps going. If your traditional balance is large and your FERS annuity and Social Security already fill your lower brackets, the forced distribution lands on top at your highest marginal rate, year after year.

The IRS Uniform Lifetime Table

This is the table TSP uses. The right column is the figure almost nobody publishes alongside it: the share of the balance that a given period forces out, which is simply one divided by the period.

IRS Uniform Lifetime Table distribution periods with the implied required share of the balance
Age reached this year	Distribution period	Required share of balance	RMD on $500,000
72	27.4	3.65%	$18,248
73	26.5	3.77%	$18,868
74	25.5	3.92%	$19,608
75	24.6	4.07%	$20,325
76	23.7	4.22%	$21,097
77	22.9	4.37%	$21,834
78	22.0	4.55%	$22,727
79	21.1	4.74%	$23,697
80	20.2	4.95%	$24,752
82	18.5	5.41%	$27,027
85	16.0	6.25%	$31,250
88	13.7	7.30%	$36,496
90	12.2	8.20%	$40,984
95	8.9	11.24%	$56,180
100	6.4	15.63%	$78,125

Distribution periods: Treas. Reg. 1.401(a)(9)-9(c), reprinted as Table III in IRS Publication 590-B Appendix B and on page 23 of TSPBK26. The required share and dollar columns are FedTools calculations from those periods. Full table ages 72 to 120 is inside the calculator. Reviewed October 2026.

Two things that reduce what you are forced to take

The first is the Roth exclusion. Since 2024, under SECURE 2.0 section 325, designated Roth accounts carry no lifetime RMD, and TSPBK26 confirms the calculation includes only your traditional balance. Every dollar you move from traditional to Roth before your RMD age is a dollar permanently out of the RMD base. Our Roth conversion calculator models the trade between paying tax now and being forced to pay it later.

The second is a much younger spouse. When your spouse is your sole designated beneficiary and more than 10 years younger, Treasury regulation 1.401(a)(9)-5(c)(2) lets you use the Joint Life and Last Survivor Table. At 73 with a 55 year old spouse the period is 32.6 instead of 26.5, which trims roughly 23 percent off the required amount every year. A gap of exactly 10 years does not qualify, so the difference between a spouse 10 years younger and one 11 years younger is thousands of dollars of forced income.