At age 73, the owner of a traditional IRA must begin pulling money out whether the cash is needed or not, and every forced dollar arrives as ordinary taxable income. A Roth IRA follows a different rule entirely: the Internal Revenue Service imposes no required minimum distribution on the original owner for the whole length of their life. That single distinction lets a Roth balance keep compounding untouched for years after a traditional account has been steadily drawn down, and it quietly reshapes which account a retiree should spend from first.
The age-73 mandate that empties a traditional IRA
Money in a traditional IRA has never been taxed. Contributions were deducted on the way in and the balance has grown without an annual tax bill, so the government eventually collects by forcing the account open. Beginning in the year an owner turns 73, the IRS requires an annual withdrawal called a required minimum distribution, and the rule reaches traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs alike. The first payment can wait until April 1 of the following year, but every year after that the deadline is December 31. The age itself is a recent moving target: the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 pushed the starting point from 72 to 73 beginning in 2023, and it is scheduled to rise again to 75 in 2033, handing traditional-account owners a few extra years of deferral before the mandate bites. The delay only postpones the forced drawdown, though; it never cancels it.
The size of each mandatory withdrawal is set by formula, not by choice. The prior year-end balance is divided by a life-expectancy figure from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, and the percentage that must come out climbs a little higher with each passing year. Skipping the distribution is expensive: the agency charges a 25% excise tax on any amount that should have been withdrawn but was not, reduced to 10% if the shortfall is corrected within two years. The forced income can also push a retiree into a higher bracket or raise the share of Social Security that becomes taxable.
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Why the Roth owner is never forced to withdraw
A Roth IRA is funded with money that was already taxed, so the Treasury has no unpaid claim waiting to be collected. That difference is the reason the lifetime withdrawal mandate simply does not apply. The IRS states plainly on its Roth IRAs page that an owner is not required to take distributions during their lifetime, and the same exemption extends to designated Roth accounts inside a 401(k) or 403(b) while that owner is alive. That parity is itself new: through 2023 a designated Roth account inside a workplace plan did carry lifetime required distributions, which pushed many savers to roll a Roth 401(k) into a Roth IRA purely to escape them, and the SECURE 2.0 Act erased that requirement only in 2024. A Roth holder who never needs the money can leave every dollar in place indefinitely.
The exemption ends at death, and that limit matters for planning. Beneficiaries who inherit a Roth IRA are subject to the distribution rules, most now facing a requirement to empty the account within ten years. The distinction is that inherited Roth withdrawals generally remain tax-free when the account has been open at least five years, under the qualified-distribution rules described in IRS Publication 590-B. An heir may have to take the money out, but the growth still escapes income tax.
What the missing withdrawal is worth in retirement
The practical value shows up in tax control. Because no Roth withdrawal is ever mandatory, a retiree can decide the exact year and amount to take, timing distributions around lower-income years or holding off entirely to keep taxable income down. Tapping the traditional IRA for required minimums while letting the Roth sit can hold a household under the thresholds that trigger higher Medicare premiums or a larger tax on Social Security benefits. Holding those thresholds down matters more than it looks: crossing an income-related Medicare surcharge tier can raise Part B and Part D premiums for a full year, so the ability to skip a Roth withdrawal is itself a lever on healthcare costs. The Roth becomes the reserve that costs nothing to leave alone.
Compounding is the second payoff. A traditional IRA loses ground each year as forced withdrawals shrink the base that earns returns, while an untouched Roth keeps its full balance working. Over a long retirement that gap widens steadily, and the difference can amount to thousands of dollars that would otherwise have been withdrawn and taxed. For a retiree who expects to leave money behind, the account also passes to heirs with its tax advantage intact rather than as a stream of taxable income.
The choice between the two accounts is really a choice about when taxes are paid. A traditional IRA delivers a deduction today and a mandatory, taxable drawdown later; a Roth takes the tax up front and asks for nothing afterward. For anyone weighing a Roth conversion or deciding which account to fund, the absence of a lifetime withdrawal requirement is one of the clearest reasons the Roth keeps more money in play for longer. The mandate that empties a traditional account never arrives for the Roth owner at all.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed against primary sources by The Money Overview editorial team.
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