To add to Connie's excellent guidance, there are different methods of calculating your RMD depending on the situation. Factors that determine which method you should use are your age and marital status.
If your spouse is the sole beneficiary of your IRA and they’re more than 10 years younger than you, use this worksheet to calculate this year’s required withdrawal for your (non-inherited) traditional IRA: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/ira-required-minimum-distribution-wor...
Use this worksheet to figure this year’s required withdrawal from your (non-inherited) traditional IRA UNLESS your spouse is the sole beneficiary of your IRA and they’re more than 10 years younger than you: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/ira-required-minimum-distribution-wor...
You can also use different tables the IRS provides. There are three different life expectancy tables. The tables are found in Appendix B of Publication 590. You use only one of them to determine your required minimum distribution for each traditional IRA. Determine which one to use as follows:
Table I (Single Life Expectancy). Use Table I for years after the year of the owner's death if either of the following applies.
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You are an individual and a designated beneficiary, but not the owner's surviving spouse and sole designated beneficiary.
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The beneficiary isn't an individual and the owner died on or after the required beginning date, defined earlier.
Surviving spouse. If you are the owner's surviving spouse and sole designated beneficiary, you will also use Table I for your required minimum distributions. However, if the owner hadn't reached age 72 when he or she died, and you don't elect to be treated as the owner of the IRA, you don't have to take distributions until the year in which the owner would have reached age 72.
Table II (Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy). Use Table II if you are the IRA owner and your spouse is both your sole designated beneficiary and more than 10 years younger than you. Use this table in the year of the owner's death if the owner died after the required beginning date and this is the table that would have been used had he or she not died.
Table III (Uniform Lifetime). Use Table III if you are the IRA owner and your spouse isn't both the sole designated beneficiary of your IRA and more than 10 years younger than you. Use this table in the year of the owner's death if the owner died after the required beginning date and this is the table that would have been used had he or she not died.
No table. Don't use any of the tables if the owner died before his or her required beginning date and either the 5-year rule or the 10-year rule (discussed earlier) applies.
Publication 590 has more information, including what age to use for the life expectancy tables.
