Since 2024, Roth 401(k) owners face zero required minimum distributions at any age, eliminating a costly gap versus Roth IRAs.
The exemption covers only the account owner; non-spouse heirs must still empty an inherited Roth 401(k) within 10 years.
Workers aged 60 to 63 can contribute up to $35,750 into a Roth 401(k) in 2026, locking in tax-free and RMD-free growth.
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If you checked the "Roth" box on your 401(k) enrollment form and kept feeding it for decades, here is the payoff almost nobody advertised: your designated Roth 401(k) no longer forces you to take a required minimum distribution during your lifetime. Not at 73, and not at 75. Not ever. That is the buried rule most participants still do not know about, and it quietly rewrote the RMD playbook for every Roth 401(k), Roth 403(b), and Roth 457(b) balance in the country.
Before 2024, the Roth 401(k) had a strange flaw. A Roth IRA never required you to touch it while you were alive. The Roth 401(k) did. That quirk forced retirees to either draw down a tax-free bucket they did not want to shrink, or roll the whole balance into a Roth IRA before their required beginning date just to dodge the distribution.
The workaround is now unnecessary, and since 2024, there has been no requirement to start taking money out of a Roth 401(k) after a certain age. If you turned 73 this year and every pre-tax saver you know just got their first RMD letter, yours never came because the plan has nothing it is legally required to distribute.
The change comes from Section 325 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, which amended Internal Revenue Code §401(a)(9) to exclude designated Roth accounts inside employer plans from the pre-death RMD rules. The IRS confirmed the mechanics in Notice 2024-02. Effective date: taxable years beginning after December 31, 2023. That is the primary source: an actual statute in the tax code.
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The exemption applies to designated Roth balances inside a 401(k), 403(b), or governmental 457(b). It covers your Roth contributions, any in-plan Roth conversions, and the earnings on both. It does not cover the pre-tax side of your 401(k), which still has RMDs starting at age 73 under SECURE 2.0 (and moving to 75 in 2033). It does not cover a SEP or SIMPLE IRA. And it does not apply to a beneficiary who inherits the account, they are still subject to distribution rules under the 10-year payout regime.
Pull up your latest 401(k) statement and confirm the "designated Roth" subaccount balance is separate from the pre-tax balance. If your plan lumps them together on the summary, call the recordkeeper and ask for the Roth-only figure. Only the Roth portion is exempt from RMDs.
If you are still contributing in 2026, know the limits: the standard elective deferral cap is $24,500, with an $8,000 catch-up at age 50 and up, for a total of $32,500. Workers aged 60 to 63 get a "super" catch-up of $11,250, bringing the total to $35,750. If you earned more than $150,000 in 2025, your catch-up must go into the Roth bucket, which is inconvenient at tax time but great for the no-RMD treatment later.
Do not roll a Roth 401(k) into a Roth IRA out of habit anymore. Both are now RMD-free during your lifetime, but the 401(k) keeps stronger creditor protection under ERISA and cleaner five-year clock treatment if you kept it since day one.
Two traps. First, the exemption is only for the account owner. The moment your heirs inherit, the RMD clock restarts under the SECURE Act 10-year rule, and a non-spouse beneficiary will generally have to empty the Roth 401(k) within a decade. Second, if you already began Roth 401(k) RMDs in 2023 or earlier under the old regime, you were allowed to stop in 2024, but plans had a transition window, and some participants kept taking distributions by mistake.
Check your 2024 and 2025 1099-Rs. If your plan pushed a Roth RMD out to you after January 1, 2024, that was a distribution you did not owe. You cannot always put the money back, but you can stop the bleeding now. This is one of a handful of quiet IRS rules that quietly drain retirement accounts, and we mapped the rest of them in a free tax trap guide here.
One box on one form, nearly three decades ago. That is the whole trick.
If you've saved over $1,000,000, this guide is for you. The last thing you want in retirement is to run out of money, you want your money to generate lasting income while you enjoy your life.
Now you can learn the strategies wealthy retirees use to fund their retirement with The Definitive Guide to Retirement Income from Fisher Investments. Download the guide today! (sponsor)
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