How to know how much I can withdraw from my IRA without paying excessive income tax

[RichJo]

I've been retired for a number of years and I have a traditional IRA. The past few years I have had to take the RMD. 

At this rate I will never be able to get the money out without paying a lot of taxes (treated as income). 

I just put my numbers into my 2025 return and I could have taken another $7,000.00 out above the RMD before hitting the taxable limit. Apparently there is an extra senior $12,000.00 exclusion that I didn't know about. Will that be there next year? 

My goal is to get all of the money out of the IRA and pay the minimum in income tax but how do I know what the taxable limit will be for this year before I start taking the money out? 

[MonikaK1]

Yes, the new additional deduction for taxpayers age 65 and over will be available for the 2026 tax year as well. With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, seniors now have the Senior Deduction for tax years 2025 through 2028 that can reduce their taxable income by $6,000 each (a total of $12,000 for joint filers) if they meet certain requirements. See also this article for more tax tips for seniors.

You can use TurboTax's free tax estimator tools in planning for your tax year 2026 return.

[Mike9241]

The RMD amount is just the minimum that must be withdrawn each year.  IRC 151(d)(5)(C) makes no mention of an annual adjustment. So the safe thing would be to assume the same (MAGI) limitations will apply in 2026

However, the IRS has already announced changes for 2026/ see this webpage, though none affect MAGI
https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/new-tax-brackets-set 

the desktop version have a what-if section for 2026. Don't know about online or their accuracy

[RichJo]

Thank you both MonikaK1 and Mike9241