Tax Efficient Withdrawal Order Calculator

Purpose and model boundary

This calculator compares three orders of drawing money in retirement from a taxable (brokerage) account, traditional IRAs and 401(k)s, and Roth accounts. Each year of the plan, from your age now up to the end age, it estimates the withdrawals needed to fund the spending you need after federal and state tax, with CHECK if funding falls short or the tax calculation has not settled, so the three orders aim to buy the same spending and differ in the tax they pay and the money they leave:

• Order A takes the taxable account first, then traditional money only up to the top of the federal bracket you choose while Roth money lasts, then Roth, and traditional again once Roth is empty.
• Order B takes traditional money first, then the taxable account, then Roth.
• Order C takes from each account in proportion to its balance at the start of the year.

The main result is order A's lifetime tax in today's dollars, beside the same figure for orders B and C, the order with the lowest lifetime tax, how much less it pays than the costliest order, how long the money lasts, the balance left at the end age and how many years order A stays within the bracket you chose.

For the yearly drawdown of one portfolio without the tax detail, use the Retirement Drawdown Withdrawal Calculator; for the tax cost of moving traditional money to Roth, the Roth Conversion Tax Impact Calculator; for the tax on a year's investment sales, the Capital Gains Tax on Investment Sales Calculator; and for the chance a plan lasts under uncertain returns, the Monte Carlo Retirement Success Calculator.

Every figure on this page is computed by the spreadsheet; the page adds nothing to it. The model is educational. It is not a tax return or a withdrawal plan, and it is not financial, investment, tax or legal advice.

Inputs and units

• Your accounts today: the taxable balance, its cost basis (what you paid for the investments in it, from 0 up to the balance), the traditional balance and the Roth balance, each from 0 to 1 trillion dollars.
• The spending you need each year after tax, in today's dollars, from 1 dollar to 1 trillion dollars a year. It rises with inflation.
• Your yearly Social Security benefit in today's dollars, from 0 to 1 billion dollars, and the age it starts, a whole age from 62 to 70. If you already receive it, enter an age at or below your age now. A married couple filing jointly enters one figure for both.
• Your age now, a whole age from 50 to 99, and the age the plan runs to: a whole age after your age now and at most 50 years later. A married couple filing jointly is taken as two people of the same age.
• Inflation, from 0% to 10% a year, and the yearly return on every account, from -5% to 15%, the same every year.
• The bracket order A fills with traditional money: the 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32% or 35% bracket.
• The tax year, 2025 or 2026, which is the first year of the plan, and your filing status: single, married filing jointly, married filing separately or head of household.
• State tax rate, optional, from 0% to 20%. Leave it blank for no state tax. One rate stands for your state's rules.

Money you enter is in whole US dollars: a balance, basis, spending or benefit with cents is refused, not rounded. Rates are percentages and ages are whole years.

Governing relationships

Each year t of the plan has an inflation index I = (1 + inflation)^(t − 1). The spending, Social Security (from its start age), the federal brackets, the two long-term breakpoints and the standard deduction with its additions for age 65 are each multiplied by I; the Social Security base amounts and the net investment income tax thresholds are not, as in law.

A required minimum distribution comes out of the traditional account first in every order, once you reach the age that applies to your birth year (73 if born 1951 to 1959, 75 if born 1960 or later):

required minimum distribution = traditional balance at the start of the year ÷ Uniform Lifetime Table divisor for your age

It counts toward the spending; if it and Social Security pay for more than the spending and the tax, the rest is reinvested in the taxable account as new basis.

The tax depends on the withdrawals and the withdrawals on the tax, so each year runs 12 rounds:

cash needed in round k = spending + tax from round k − 1 − Social Security

and each order splits that cash between its accounts by its own rule. A withdrawal from the taxable account realises a long-term gain in proportion to the gain in the account; a traditional withdrawal is ordinary income; a Roth withdrawal is taken as a qualified, tax-free distribution. The taxable part of Social Security follows 26 USC 86 from provisional income (the traditional withdrawals, the gain realised and half the benefit) against the base amounts for your filing status, up to 85% of the benefit. The federal tax is the IRS Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet of the chosen year and filing status: ordinary income on the rate schedule, long-term gains stacked on top at 0%, 15% or 20%, the smaller of that and the regular tax, plus the 3.8% net investment income tax above its threshold. The state tax is your rate times taxable ordinary income, the taxed Social Security included, and the gains. The twelfth round's tax is the year's tax.

For the tax years 2025 to 2028 the senior deduction of 26 USC 151(d)(5)(C) is also taken, as read on 2026-10-17: 6,000 dollars for each person who is 65 or over by the end of the year (on a joint return, each spouse; on a married filing separately return, none), each 6,000 reduced, but not below zero, by 6% of modified adjusted gross income above 75,000 dollars (150,000 on a joint return). Modified adjusted gross income here is adjusted gross income with the taxed Social Security included. The deduction is not raised by inflation, it comes after adjusted gross income, so it changes neither provisional income nor the net investment income tax, and it applies whether or not you itemize. The Social Security number it requires is assumed.

Order A's stopping dollar, the traditional withdrawal that brings ordinary taxable income exactly to the top of the bracket you chose, is solved inside each round, with the taxable part of Social Security and the senior deduction both moving as the withdrawal grows. Then

lifetime tax in today's dollars = sum over the years of (that year's tax ÷ I)

and the order named lowest is the one with the lowest lifetime tax in today's dollars among the orders whose money lasts longest, ties going to A, then B, then C.

The federal figures for each tax year are kept in the workbook, each with its source and the date it was read:

Calculation sequence

The spreadsheet first checks every input. It then builds one row per year for each order: the age, the inflation index, the spending, Social Security, the deduction, the top of the chosen bracket and the start-of-year balances; the required minimum distribution; the 12 rounds of withdrawals, taxable Social Security and tax; the year's tax again on the shared tax worksheet; the reinvestment, growth and end-of-year balances. It then adds up each order's lifetime tax as paid and in today's dollars, finds the age each order's money lasts to and the balance left, and picks the lowest. A block of consistency checks confirms the arithmetic before the status is returned.

Outputs and interpretation

The headline is order A's lifetime tax in today's dollars. The cards show how much less the lowest order pays than the costliest, the order with the lowest lifetime tax, orders B's and C's lifetime tax in today's dollars, the age order A's money lasts to, order A's balance at the end age and the years order A stays within the bracket you chose. The tables give the three orders side by side and, for each order, one row per year: your age, the required minimum distribution, the withdrawals from each account, the Social Security that is taxed, taxable income, federal and state tax, the rate on the last dollar of ordinary income and the total balance at the end of the year. The lifetime tax of each order as paid, the age orders B's and C's money lasts to, their end balances and the workbook's self-check are returned to the API and MCP.

The comparison is of tax only. The balances left differ between orders, and the traditional part of a balance still owes income tax when it comes out, so the order with the lowest lifetime tax is not always the one that leaves the most to spend.

Under the default inputs, a single filer aged 66 in 2026 with 200,000 dollars in a taxable account (150,000 cost basis), 500,000 in traditional accounts and 200,000 in Roth, spending 60,000 a year after tax, Social Security of 30,000 from 67, 2.5% inflation and a 5% return to age 95, filling up to the 12% bracket and no state tax: order A pays no federal tax in the first year, because the 60,000 from the taxable account realises a gain of 15,000, below the deduction of 16,100 plus 2,050 for age 65 plus the 6,000 senior deduction. Over the 29 years of the plan, order A's lifetime tax in today's dollars is about 97,800 dollars, order B's about 69,522 and order C's about 46,855, so order C is named lowest and pays about 50,945 dollars less than order A, the costliest. The money lasts to age 95 under all three orders, order A leaves about 698,196 dollars at the end age, and order A stays within the 12% bracket in all 29 years.

With the same inputs but Social Security starting at 66 and the plan running one year to 67, the deduction is 16,100 + 2,050 + 6,000 = 24,150. Order A takes 30,000 from the taxable account, realising 7,500; provisional income is 22,500, below the 25,000 base, so no Social Security is taxed and the tax is 0. Order B takes about 32,720 from traditional accounts; about 16,162 of its Social Security is taxed, its taxable income is about 24,732, and it pays about 2,720 dollars of federal tax, with 12% on the last dollar. Order C takes about 6,667 from the taxable account, 16,667 from traditional accounts and 6,667 from Roth; its adjusted gross income of 22,500 is below the deduction, so it pays 0. Order A is named lowest (A and C tie at 0, and a tie goes to A), about 2,720 dollars less than order B.

The first chart stacks order A's withdrawals each year by account, from the required minimum distribution at the bottom to Roth at the top; each band is drawn from the workbook's running totals, so its height is what that account paid. The second chart shows the federal rate on the last dollar of ordinary income each year for the three orders, and the third the total balance at the end of each year.

Validation and status logic

The workbook evaluates the conditions below from top to bottom and returns the first matching status.

NOT VALID is a refusal, not a numeric answer: every number reads zero, the order named reads Not computed and the tables are empty. CHECK accompanies a computed result but calls for the stated review. The self-check is reported separately as arithmetic-integrity evidence; it does not replace this ordered status chain.

Assumptions and limitations

The projected balances, withdrawals and taxes are approximate: each number is stored with about 15 to 16 significant digits and carried from year to year, so with very large balances or spending the dollar figures are less exact.

Every year uses the first year's federal tables raised by your inflation rate, not the official inflation measure, and the indexed figures are not rounded as the IRS rounds them; the ordinary tax uses the exact rate schedules, not the IRS Tax Table. Withdrawals and reinvestment happen at the start of the year and growth over it; required minimum distributions use the start-of-year balance and your age in the year, not the prior year-end balance and the exact birthday. Every gain realised from the taxable account is long-term. A loss realised there is deducted up to the yearly limit in its year and not carried forward. A married couple is one age and one Social Security figure.

The model does not include wages, pensions, annuities or any income other than Social Security and these withdrawals; dividends and interest from the taxable account; the 10% additional tax on traditional withdrawals before age 59 and a half, or the Roth five-year rules; Roth conversions; Medicare premium surcharges; the qualifying surviving spouse status; or market swings (one return every year). A married person filing separately who lived apart from the spouse all year keeps the 25,000 dollar Social Security base and the 34,000 dollar adjusted base; the workbook conservatively uses the zero base for every separate return. The age 73 for people born in 1959 follows the proposed regulations; if a final rule chooses 75, such a plan would change. State tax is one rate on all taxable income, including the taxed part of Social Security; many states tax less.

Restrictions and non-computing states

This calculator enforces its numeric and choice limits before it accepts a result. The bracket, tax year and filing status come from their lists. A cost basis above the taxable balance, an end age not after your age or more than 50 years later, and money with cents are refused by the workbook. A blank state rate means no state tax.

Errors and warnings

A request rejected by the page's input limits is not a computed result. A transport or service failure cannot establish a fresh workbook answer. Review the workbook's References and Disclaimer and current tax rules with a qualified professional before using a result for a real decision.

Sources and further reading

Your balances, spending, Social Security, ages, rates and choices come from the inputs. The federal figures for each tax year come from the IRS sources below and are kept in the workbook by year, each with the date it was read. The rules for Social Security, required minimum distributions, Roth withdrawals and the senior deduction come from the statutes and regulations below. The workbook's References sheet identifies them all. The links explain the rules the model follows; they do not endorse this calculator.

• Revenue Procedure 2024-40, section 2.01 and section 2.03, gives the 2025 rate schedules and the 0% and 15% long-term breakpoints for each filing status (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• Revenue Procedure 2025-32, section 4.01, section 4.03 and section 4.14, gives the 2026 rate schedules, long-term breakpoints, standard deductions and the additional amounts for age 65. Section 3.01 gives the 2025 standard deductions as amended by Public Law 119-21; section 2.08 describes the change (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• Instructions for Form 1040 (2025), Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet, sets out how long-term gains are stacked on ordinary taxable income, and that the tax is the smaller of that figure and the regular tax (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• IRS Topic 409, Capital gains and losses explains the 0%, 15% and 20% long-term rates and the yearly limit of 3,000 dollars on a net capital loss (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• IRS Questions and Answers on the Net Investment Income Tax gives the 3.8% rate and the thresholds for each filing status, and says they are not indexed for inflation (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• 26 U.S. Code § 86, Social Security and tier 1 railroad retirement benefits, gives the provisional-income test, the base and adjusted base amounts, the zero base for a married person filing separately who lived with the spouse, and the 85% limit (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• 26 U.S. Code § 151, subsection (d)(5)(C), the deduction for seniors added by Public Law 119-21. It gives the 6,000 dollars for each person 65 or over, the 6% phase-out above 75,000 dollars of modified adjusted gross income (150,000 on a joint return), the joint-return rule and the years 2025 to 2028 (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• IRS, Check your eligibility for the new enhanced deduction for seniors restates the amount, the age, the years and the thresholds (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• IRS fact sheet FS-2025-03, Working Families Tax Cuts: Tax deductions for working Americans and seniors says the senior deduction is available whether or not you itemize (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• 26 U.S. Code § 63, subsection (f), gives the additional standard deduction for a taxpayer or spouse who is 65 or over by the end of the year (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• 26 U.S. Code § 401, subsection (a)(9)(C)(v), sets the age required minimum distributions start: 73, or 75 for those who reach 74 after 2032 (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• 26 CFR § 1.401(a)(9)-2, paragraph (b)(2), gives that age by birth year. The paragraph for people born in 1959 is reserved in the final regulations (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• Internal Revenue Bulletin 2024-33 contains the proposed regulation (REG-103529-23) that sets age 73 for people born in 1959 (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• 26 CFR § 1.401(a)(9)-9, paragraph (c), gives the Uniform Lifetime Table divisors the required minimum distribution uses (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• 26 U.S. Code § 408A, subsection (d), says that a qualified Roth distribution is not included in income, and gives the age 59 and a half and five-year conditions (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• 26 U.S. Code § 72, subsection (t), gives the 10% additional tax on retirement-plan distributions before age 59 and a half, which this model does not include (retrieved 2026-10-20).
• Microsoft Support's SUMPRODUCT documentation describes the summing function the workbook uses for the tax on each bracket.

This is an educational estimate, not financial, investment, tax or legal advice. Tax rules and figures change every year and depend on your whole return; check them against current IRS guidance and a qualified professional before you choose how to draw your accounts.