72(t) SEPP Calculator

What a 72(t) series is

Taking money from an IRA before age 59 1/2 normally costs a 10% additional tax on top of income tax. Section 72(t) of the tax code offers a way around it: a series of substantially equal periodic payments, often shortened to SEPP, worked out under one of the methods the IRS accepts and taken at least once a year. This 72(t) calculator applies the three methods in IRS Notice 2022-6 to your balance and age, caps the interest rate at the level the Notice allows, and sets out every payment until the series may end, together with the tax that would come back if the series were broken.

The payments are calculated over your life expectancy, or the joint life expectancy of you and your designated beneficiary, and must follow the chosen method exactly. Once the series starts you cannot add money to the account, move part of it elsewhere or take anything extra. Each series belongs to one account, so with several IRAs you can run a series from one and leave the others alone. For a 401(k) or other employer plan you must have left that employer before the first payment. The payments are still taxable income; only the 10% additional tax is avoided.

The three IRS methods

The required minimum distribution method divides the account balance at the end of the previous year by the life expectancy for your age that year. The payment is worked out again every year, so it moves with the account, and it is usually the smallest of the three. The fixed amortization method spreads the starting balance evenly over your life expectancy at a chosen interest rate, like a mortgage paid to you, and the payment never changes. The fixed annuitization method divides the balance by an annuity factor, the present value of 1 dollar a year for life worked out from the mortality rates in the Treasury regulations and the chosen interest rate. It is fixed too, and usually the largest.

The IRS worked example on its SEPP questions page shows the gap. For a 50-year-old with $400,000 and a 4% rate, the three methods give $11,050, $21,102 and $22,030 a year. The calculator reproduces all three.

Choosing a life expectancy table

The Notice allows three tables. The Single Life Table gives the shortest life expectancy, 36.2 years at age 50, and so the largest payment under the RMD and amortization methods. The Uniform Lifetime Table is longer, 48.5 years at 50. The Treasury regulation’s own Uniform table starts at age 72, so the Notice prints an extended version from age 10 in its Appendix A, and that is the one used here. The Joint and Last Survivor Table uses your age and your designated beneficiary’s; for ages 50 and 55 it gives 40.2 years. Under the RMD method you must stay with the table you start with.

The interest rate cap

For the two fixed methods you may use any rate up to the greater of 5% or 120% of the federal mid-term rate for either of the two months before the month of your first payment. The rate is fixed once the series starts, and a higher rate gives a larger payment. The calculator treats the rate as your input and caps it. It keeps the 5% floor and the published 120% mid-term figures for the two most recent months as dated parameters and uses the higher of the two months. For a first payment in September 2026 those months are July and August, both 5.23% on the annual compounding basis, so the cap is 5.23%. For a first payment in October 2026 they are August at 5.23% and September at 5.40%, from Revenue Ruling 2026-17, so the cap rises to 5.40%. The figures appear monthly in the IRS applicable federal rate revenue rulings and are updated here as each ruling is published.

How long the series must last

You cannot change the payments until the later of five years after the first payment or the date you reach 59 1/2. Start at 50 and you are committed for about ten annual payments; start at 57 and you still owe five. The exact end depends on the month you were born and the month you take your payments. The IRS gives two examples for someone born in August who is paid each December: starting at 56 means five payments, even though 59 1/2 comes sooner, and starting at 52 means eight payments, until 59 1/2. The calculator counts the payments the same way and treats a payment in the month of your half-birthday as falling before it.

Breaking the series and the one-time switch

Changing the series early, by taking more, taking less or stopping, brings back the 10% additional tax on every payment you took before 59 1/2, plus interest, all in the year of the change. The schedule shows how large that recapture would be at each point. Some changes are not modifications: death, disability, an account that runs dry while you follow the method, and a single switch from fixed amortization or fixed annuitization to the RMD method for the rest of the series. The switch lowers the payment, which can help after a market fall, and the calculator lets you choose the year it happens.

A worked example

A 50-year-old born in January with $400,000 in an IRA chooses fixed amortization at 4% over the Single Life Table’s 36.2 years and takes each payment in January. The payment is $21,101.63 a year, and the series runs for ten payments, until 59 1/2. If the account earned nothing and the owner switched to the RMD method in year three, the third payment would fall to $10,431.39, the remaining $357,796.73 divided by the 34.3-year life expectancy at 52, and the ten payments would total about $124,764.

Assumptions and limitations

Payments are annual and taken at the end of each year, after a year of growth at the return you enter. The fixed payments do not depend on that return, but the balance and any RMD payments do. The balance you enter should be the value on a date between the end of the previous year and the first payment. The interest on a recapture, state taxes and the income tax on the payments are not calculated. Tables and rates come from Notice 2022-6, Treasury Regulation 1.401(a)(9)-9 and the monthly IRS rate rulings, stored as parameters. A mistake in a 72(t) series is expensive, so confirm the numbers with your IRA custodian or a tax professional before the first payment.

About This 72t Calculator

Use this 72t calculator to get an instant, accurate estimate. The figures follow official IRS guidance and every rate and threshold is kept up to date for 2026. Adjust the inputs above to match your situation, or browse all our calculators to plan your next step.