Joint life expectancy table: the RMD with a much younger spouse

An extract of Table II

Each row is one owner age and each column one age gap. The full table in the regulation has a row for every owner age from 0 to 120 and a column for every spouse age, because it is also used by surviving spouses and in other calculations. For an RMD, only the pairs with a gap of more than 10 years matter: at 10 years or less, the Uniform table already assumes a beneficiary 10 years younger and is the one to use.

The conditions, all three

1. The beneficiary is your spouse. A partner who is not a spouse, a child or a trust do not qualify, even if much younger. A trust can qualify only in specific see-through situations where the spouse is treated as the sole beneficiary.
2. The spouse is the sole designated beneficiary. Naming the spouse together with children, even for a small share, brings back the Uniform table. A contingent beneficiary who inherits only if the spouse dies first does not count.
3. More than 10 years younger. The ages compared are those reached by each of you on your birthdays in the distribution year. A gap of exactly 10 years does not qualify; the table gives no factor for it in this use.

How much it changes

At 76 the uniform factor is 23.7. With a spouse aged 62, Table II gives 26.6, so on $800,000 the minimum drops by $3,680 for 2026. With a spouse aged 66, exactly 10 years younger, the joint factor does not apply and the owner stays on the Uniform table. The saving grows with the gap and with time: as the owner ages, the uniform factor falls quickly while the joint factor, driven by the younger spouse's life expectancy, falls slowly. Over ten or fifteen years of RMDs, more money stays invested in the account.

A smaller RMD is a floor, not a recommendation. Nothing prevents you from taking more, and some couples prefer to withdraw evenly over the years to keep their income in a lower tax bracket. The joint table only changes what the law requires.

Divorce, death and the January 1 test

Publication 590-B sets the test date at January 1. If your spouse is the sole beneficiary on that date, the spouse remains the beneficiary for the whole year for this purpose, even if you divorce or your spouse dies during the year. The change of table takes effect the following year. One exception: if you divorce and change the beneficiary designation during the same year, your former spouse is no longer treated as the sole beneficiary for that year.

When the spouse dies first, the owner moves back to the Uniform table from the next year unless another spouse is named. When the owner dies first, the surviving spouse inherits and can treat the IRA as his or her own, with RMDs then based on the spouse's own age (inherited accounts).

Reading the table by hand

If you want to check a custodian's figure, the method fits on one line. Take the age the owner reaches on the 2026 birthday and find that row; take the age the spouse reaches on the 2026 birthday and find that column; the number where they cross is the denominator. Divide the account value of December 31, 2025 by it. Custodians normally apply the joint table only when they hold the beneficiary designation and the spouse's date of birth, so a statement that shows the uniform amount may simply mean the information is missing. The custodian computes the figure for convenience; the obligation to take the right amount stays with the owner, and so does the excise tax on a shortfall. Sending the spouse's birth date and confirming the sole designation before the first payment of the year avoids a correction later.

Plans and IRAs alike

The same rule applies to a 401(k), a 403(b) and a governmental 457(b), as long as the spouse is the sole beneficiary of that plan. Each account is tested on its own: a couple may name the spouse alone on one IRA and the children on another, and use Table II for the first and the Uniform table for the second. When IRA totals are combined to take the distribution from one account, each IRA's RMD is still computed with its own table first (several accounts).