What is the age 59½ IRA rule?

The rule in one paragraph

Publication 590-B (2025) defines early distributions as amounts distributed from a traditional IRA account or annuity before you are age 59½, or amounts you receive when you cash in retirement bonds before that age. Two separate consequences follow. First, the taxable part has to be included in your gross income like any other IRA distribution. Second, the same taxable part is generally hit with an additional tax of 10%. The publication is explicit that this tax is in addition to the regular income tax, so a withdrawal can be taxed twice over: once at your bracket and once at a flat 10%.

What the 10% tax applies to, and what it does not

The additional tax is computed on the amount of the early distribution that you must include in gross income. That wording matters. If you have made nondeductible contributions to your traditional IRA, the portion of a distribution that represents that basis is a tax-free return of your own money, and the publication states that the tax on early distributions does not apply to it. Distributions that are timely and properly rolled over are not subject to regular tax or the 10% tax either, and the publication adds that certain withdrawals of excess contributions after the due date of the return are tax free and therefore avoid the 10% tax as well. Transfers incident to divorce are in the same category.

One SIMPLE IRA caution deserves its own sentence: early distributions from a SIMPLE retirement account made within 2 years of beginning participation are subject to a 25% tax rather than 10%. If your IRA is a SIMPLE IRA, check your start date before you rely on any figure on this page.

The Tom Jones example, worked

The publication gives a simple case. Tom Jones, 35, takes a $3,000 distribution from his traditional IRA account. He meets none of the exceptions and has never made a nondeductible contribution. So the full $3,000 is an early distribution, he includes $3,000 in income and pays income tax on it, and he also pays an additional tax of $300 (10% × $3,000). He reports it on Form 5329. Now change one fact. If Tom had $1,000 of basis in a way that made $1,000 of that $3,000 nontaxable, the additional tax would be computed only on the $2,000 taxable part, which is $200. The calculator above does the first calculation: enter a birth date, a distribution date and the taxable amount, and it returns the date you reach 59½ and the 10% figure if the distribution is before it.

After 59½ and before 73

The publication spells out the window in the middle: after you reach age 59½ you can receive distributions without paying the 10% additional tax. Distributions are still taxed as ordinary income when they are taxable, and they are not required until you reach age 73. So between the two ages you have discretion over timing, which matters for bracket planning. If you need the age at which required withdrawals begin by birth year, the RMD age table and the required minimum distribution calculator on this site cover that side of the line.

Exceptions you should know exist

The publication lists fifteen situations in which the 10% tax may not apply even though you are under 59½: unreimbursed medical expenses above 7.5% of AGI, medical insurance premiums during unemployment, total and permanent disability, a terminal illness certification, being the beneficiary of a deceased owner, substantially equal periodic payments, qualified higher education expenses, a first-home purchase up to $10,000, an IRS levy, qualified reservist distributions, qualified birth or adoption distributions, qualified disaster recovery distributions, corrective distributions, domestic abuse victim distributions and certain emergency personal expenses. Each has its own conditions and dollar limits. The page on exceptions to the IRA early withdrawal penalty walks through the limits, and the 72(t) SEPP calculator covers the periodic-payment route in depth.

A caution about the exact date

The publication speaks of the date you reach age 59½. The calculator adds six months to your 59th birthday and, if the month is shorter, uses the last day of that month. For a birthday on the 29th, 30th or 31st, the result can be a day or two off from how a custodian counts it, so if a withdrawal is within days of the line, waiting a few extra days costs nothing and removes the doubt. Your custodian reports the distribution on Form 1099-R with a distribution code, and a code that says you were under 59½ is what usually prompts the Form 5329 question.

Reporting

The publication directs you to Form 5329 to figure the additional tax and to its section on reporting additional taxes for filing details. If the 1099-R code already shows an exception, you may still need to enter the exception number on the form to avoid the tax. This page is a rule summary; for line-by-line help see the related guides below.

Sources

• IRS Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) (2025): Early Distributions; Age 59½ Rule; Exceptions; Additional 10% Tax (Tom Jones example). Read November 2, 2026.

Edition read: Publication 590-B (2025), for use in preparing 2025 returns. Dollar limits and dates in this publication are for 2025; check the current publication and form instructions for your tax year. This page summarizes the publication and does not replace it.