72(t) Payments Calculator
How much can I take from a retirement account before 59½ without the penalty, and for how long must I keep taking it? Every piece below can be linked to, so it opens in a window on your reader's screen, current as of the record. No form to fill in.
2026 law · Reviewed September 6, 2026 · The full page, with methodology and sources · the terms · All tools
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The balance, your age, and a rate in; the level payment by amortization, the first-year payment by the RMD method, and the years the series must continue out. In a frame it carries no cookies, no tracking, and a visible link back to the methodology. Your site has to allow frames; most do. The link that opens it in a small window is on the professionals page.
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- In plain words.
- Taking money out of an IRA or 401(k) before age 59½ usually costs a 10 percent penalty on top of the tax. One exception lets you avoid the penalty by taking a fixed yearly amount, set by a formula from your balance, your age, and an interest rate, and keeping it up for at least five years or until 59½, whichever is later. This tool computes that amount two ways, and tells you how long you are committed.
- Why it matters.
- For someone retiring in their fifties with most of their savings in retirement accounts, this is the legal way to live on them. The commitment is the part people underestimate: the payment is locked for years.
- An example.
- With $500,000 at age 50 and the 5 percent rate the rules always allow, the level payment is about $30,200 a year, or about $13,800 in the first year by the recalculated method. Either way the series must run ten years, to age 60.
- Where it stops.
- Once started, the payments cannot be changed without owing the penalty on all of them, back to the first one, with interest. The tool does not offer the third method, annuitization, which needs a mortality table and lands close to amortization.
The facts
Six quotable sentences on 72(t) payments, from the notice.
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- Withdrawals from a retirement account before 59½ carry a 10 percent additional tax, with exceptions; one is a series of substantially equal periodic payments over your life expectancy (§ 72(t)(2)(A)(iv)).
- Three methods are allowed: the required-minimum-distribution method (balance over life expectancy, recomputed each year), fixed amortization (a level payment over life expectancy at a chosen rate), and fixed annuitization (Notice 2022-6 § 3.01).
- The rate may be anything up to the greater of 5% or 120 percent of the federal mid-term rate (§ 3.02(c)); the 5% floor means a higher payment is always available without checking the month's rate.
- Example: $500,000 at age 50, on the Single Life Table (36.2 years) at 5%: about $30,156 a year by amortization, or $13,812 in the first year by the RMD method.
- Once begun, the series must continue for the later of 5 years or reaching 59½; change it, and the 10 percent tax is owed on every payment back to the start, with interest (§ 72(t)(4)). At 50 that is 10 years of payments.
- A one-time switch from either fixed method to the RMD method is allowed, which is the escape hatch when the account falls and the fixed payment is too high.
Payments on a $500,000 balance, by age
Both methods and the years the series must run, at four starting ages.
The button shows exactly what your reader sees when they click the link. Paste the link where a link goes; it opens this table in a small window, always current as of the record, with the attribution and a link to the full page. Nothing to copy out, nothing to update later.
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| Starting age | Life expectancy | Amortization, per year | RMD method, first year | Must continue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 36.2 | $30,156 | $13,812 | 10 years, to 60 |
| 52 | 34.3 | $30,773 | $14,577 | 8 years, to 60 |
| 55 | 31.6 | $31,807 | $15,823 | 5 years, to 60 |
| 57 | 29.8 | $32,622 | $16,779 | 5 years, to 62 |
Cite and link.
The clean address, a citation generated from the record so it can never carry a stale review date, and an address for every section so you can point a reader at the exact table or method.
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- Link
- https://consideratecapital.com/tools/72t-payments-calculator
- Citation
- Considerate Capital, "72(t) Payments Calculator," reviewed September 6, 2026, https://consideratecapital.com/tools/72t-payments-calculator.
Link to a section
- The calculator https://consideratecapital.com/tools/72t-payments-calculator#calculator
- The facts https://consideratecapital.com/tools/72t-payments-calculator#facts
- By starting age https://consideratecapital.com/tools/72t-payments-calculator#key-numbers
- How the series works https://consideratecapital.com/tools/72t-payments-calculator#how-it-works
- Methodology https://consideratecapital.com/tools/72t-payments-calculator#methodology
- Sources https://consideratecapital.com/tools/72t-payments-calculator#sources
- Revision history https://consideratecapital.com/tools/72t-payments-calculator#revision-history
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