You've probably heard the advice for age 73: "just take the required minimum and pay the tax on it." That advice treats the RMD as a bill when it's really a trigger. Your Required Minimum Distribution is ordinary income, and that income re-prices three other things in the same year. It can make up to 85% of your Social Security taxable. It sets your Medicare premium two years later. And it creeps your tax bracket. Advisors call the pile-up the tax torpedo, and because the benefit it hits hardest is your Social Security you'll also see it called the Social Security tax torpedo, and the RMD fires it. Below: what an RMD is, how each part works, and three legal ways to soften it.
What is an RMD?
For decades the government lets your traditional IRA and 401(k) grow tax-deferred, because you never paid tax on that money going in. The Required Minimum Distribution is the government collecting. From a set age it forces you to withdraw a minimum every year, whether you need the cash or not, and that withdrawal gets taxed as ordinary income. You can't leave it growing untaxed forever. The start age is 73 if you were born between 1951 and 1959, and 75 if you were born in 1960 or later, under SECURE 2.0. There's no single universal age, so say "73 or 75, depending on my birth year." Source: IRS, required minimum distributions FAQs.
A trigger, not a bill
The tax on the RMD itself is the small, obvious part. The expensive part is what the extra income does downstream. Raising your income for the year can push you over invisible lines that re-price your Social Security tax, your Medicare premium and your bracket, all at once. That cascade is the torpedo. Miss it and you optimize the one visible tax while three hidden ones go off behind it.
Torpedo 1: how does an RMD make up to 85% of your Social Security taxable?
Social Security isn't taxed automatically. It depends on your combined income: adjusted gross income, plus nontaxable interest, plus half your benefits. Cross the IRS thresholds and a rising share of your benefits becomes taxable, up to 85%. As a rule of thumb the 85% tier starts around $34,000 of combined income for a single filer and $44,000 for a married couple filing jointly. A large RMD is exactly the kind of income that pushes you over those lines. So the forced withdrawal gets taxed and drags your benefits into the tax base with it.
Torpedo 2: your Medicare premium spikes, two years later
This one surprises people, because the bill arrives late. Income on this year's tax return sets your Medicare Part B and Part D IRMAA surcharge two years later. And IRMAA is a cliff, not a ramp. Go one dollar over a bracket line and the entire higher surcharge applies. So a big RMD this year raises your Medicare premiums two years out. A genuine life-changing event lets you ask Social Security to use newer figures with Form SSA-44, but an RMD on its own isn't a qualifying event. Better to avoid tripping the line at all. Source: SSA, Medicare Premiums: Rules for Higher-Income Beneficiaries.
Torpedo 3: bracket creep
The third hit is the simplest. Stack a large RMD on your other income and part of it spills into the next tax bracket, so the last dollars get taxed at a higher marginal rate. On its own it's the mildest of the three. Landing in the same year as the Social Security tax and the IRMAA cliff, the three together earn the name torpedo.
The April 1 trap: two RMDs in one year
You can delay your very first RMD to April 1 of the year after you turn 73. It sounds like a break. It's usually a trap, because you then have to take your second RMD by December 31 of that same year. Two RMDs land in one calendar year. Doubling your income in a single year is the fastest way to fire all three torpedoes at once. Unless you have a specific reason, take your first RMD in the year you turn 73 and keep the income spread out.
The penalty got smaller. The torpedo didn't.
Skip an RMD and the IRS excise tax used to be a brutal 50% of what you should have taken. SECURE 2.0 cut it to 25%, and to 10% if you fix it inside the correction window. Good news, and a distraction. The penalty was never the real cost. The real cost is the torpedo going off every year you do take the RMD without planning for the cascade.
Lever 1: the QCD (give it straight from your IRA)
The Qualified Charitable Distribution is the cleanest tool. If you're 70½ or older, you can send money directly from your IRA to a qualified charity. It counts toward your RMD, and it's excluded from your income entirely. It never lands in your AGI, so it never feeds the Social Security tax or the IRMAA cliff. The annual limit ran about $108,000 for 2025 and is inflation-indexed, so confirm the current year's figure. If you give to charity anyway, doing it as a QCD instead of writing a check is often the single best way to soften the torpedo. Source: IRS, qualified charitable distributions.
Lever 2: Roth conversions before 73
Your traditional balance when RMDs begin is what sizes the torpedo. So the years before 73 are the time to convert some traditional IRA money to Roth, especially any low-income window after you retire but before RMDs and, for some people, before Social Security. You pay tax now at today's rate to shrink the future balance. Smaller balance later means smaller RMDs, which means a weaker torpedo. Whether it's worth doing depends on your bracket now against later, your heirs, and having cash to pay the conversion tax. This one is genuinely situational.
Lever 3: take the first RMD on time
The simplest lever costs nothing. Don't defer your first RMD to April 1. Take it in the year you turn 73 and you never stack two into one calendar year. That keeps both the income and the torpedo spread out.
Still working at 73 — do you have to take an RMD?
Still employed at 73 or 75, and you don't own more than 5% of the company? You can generally delay RMDs from that current employer's 401(k) or 403(b) until April 1 after you actually retire. It applies to that specific plan only. Your IRAs and old 401(k)s stay on schedule. Confirm the details for your own plan at irs.gov.
Free guide: The IRMAA Cliff cheat sheet
Torpedo two is the sneaky one. This 1-page cheat sheet lays out the 2026 IRMAA brackets, the two-year lag and the SSA-44 route, so a big RMD year doesn't blindside your Medicare premium.
Get the free cheat sheet→What to check this week
- Find your RMD start age, 73 or 75 by birth year. If you're already there, check whether you deferred your first one to April 1 and walked into the double-RMD trap.
- Estimate whether your RMD pushes your combined income over the 85% Social Security line or an IRMAA bracket. Those are the two expensive ones.
- If you give to charity, ask whether a QCD fits. If you have a low-income year before 73, ask whether a Roth conversion fits. Both are situational, which is what a professional is for.
The RMD isn't the bill you should be watching. The cascade behind it is. Check the rule, not the slogan.
Educational only
Educational only, and not financial, tax or investment advice. RMD ages, thresholds, penalties and QCD limits change, and whether a Roth conversion or QCD helps depends entirely on your own bracket, accounts, charitable intent and heirs. Every dollar figure here is illustrative. Confirm your own numbers at irs.gov, ssa.gov and medicare.gov, or with a qualified professional who can look at your full return before you act.
Sources
• IRS — Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) (start age 73/75; the April 1 first-year rule)
• IRS — RMD FAQs (the 50%→25%→10% penalty; still-working exception)
• IRS — Publication 915 & SSA — Income Taxes and Your Social Security Benefit (up to 85% taxable; the thresholds)
• SSA/Medicare — Medicare Premiums: Rules for Higher-Income Beneficiaries (IRMAA) & Form SSA-44 (the two-year lag; the appeal)
• IRS — Qualified Charitable Distributions (70½+, counts toward the RMD, excluded from income)
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Common questions
When do RMDs start?
Required Minimum Distributions start at age 73 if you were born 1951–1959, and age 75 if you were born 1960 or later (SECURE 2.0). You can delay your very first RMD to April 1 of the year after you turn 73, but then you take two RMDs in that one calendar year, which stacks the income. It's usually cleaner to take the first RMD in the year you turn 73.
Does an RMD really increase the tax on my Social Security?
Yes, indirectly. Your RMD is ordinary income, and it raises your 'combined income,' which is the figure that decides how much of your Social Security is taxable. Above the IRS thresholds, up to 85% of your Social Security benefits become taxable. The RMD didn't tax your benefits directly. It pushed your combined income over the line that does.
How do I avoid or soften the RMD tax torpedo?
Three legal levers, and which one fits depends on your situation: (1) a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD), giving directly from your IRA to a charity; it counts toward your RMD and stays out of your income, so it doesn't feed the Social Security tax or Medicare IRMAA. Available at 70½+. (2) Roth conversions in low-income years before 73 shrink the traditional balance, so future RMDs are smaller. (3) Take your first RMD in the year you turn 73 instead of deferring to April 1, so you don't stack two RMDs into one year. These are situational, so confirm with a professional and at irs.gov.