An IRA does not have a maturity date. Unlike a CD or a bond, an Individual Retirement Arrangement is a tax-advantaged account, not an investment product, so nothing about the account itself expires or comes due. What people usually mean when they ask about an IRA maturity date is one of two things: the maturity of a specific investment held inside the IRA, or one of the age-based deadlines in the tax code that control when you can withdraw money, when you must start, and how much you have to take out each year.
What Actually Matures Inside an IRA
Maturity applies to certain assets held within the IRA, not to the IRA itself. A CD purchased inside your IRA might carry a three-year or five-year term. A bond has a defined date when the issuer returns your principal. When either reaches its maturity date, the cash (principal plus accrued interest) lands in the IRA’s settlement or cash account. The money stays inside the tax-advantaged shell and does not trigger a taxable event.
From there you decide what to do with the proceeds. You can buy a new CD at a different term or rate, move into a bond fund, or reinvest in stocks or mutual funds. The IRA keeps going regardless of what happens to any single investment inside it.
Age 59½: The First Withdrawal Deadline
The first meaningful age milestone for any IRA owner is 59½. Before that age, pulling money out of a Traditional IRA triggers a 10% additional tax on top of the regular income tax you owe on the distribution.1Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Exceptions to Tax on Early Distributions Once you reach 59½, the 10% penalty disappears and you can take distributions of any size for any reason.
A handful of exceptions let you avoid the penalty earlier, including disability, certain medical expenses, and a first-time home purchase (up to $10,000). For most people, though, 59½ is the practical line between expensive early withdrawals and free access.2Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding IRAs Distributions (Withdrawals)
Age 73: When You Must Start Withdrawing
The other major milestone is the age when withdrawals stop being optional. For Traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs, the IRS requires annual Required Minimum Distributions starting at age 73.3Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs The 73 threshold applies to anyone who turns 72 after December 31, 2022, and turns 73 before January 1, 2033.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 401 – Qualified Pension, Profit-Sharing, and Stock Bonus Plans A later increase raises the RMD age to 75 for anyone who turns 74 after December 31, 2032. If you’re still decades from retirement, your trigger age is likely 75, not 73.
Your First RMD Deadline
You must take your first RMD by April 1 of the year after you reach the trigger age.5Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) That April 1 grace period sounds generous but creates a trap. If you push your first distribution into the following calendar year, you still owe a second RMD for that same year by December 31. Two distributions in one tax year can shove you into a higher bracket. Most people are better off taking the first RMD in the year they actually reach the trigger age.
How the Amount Is Set
Your annual RMD is your total Traditional IRA balance as of December 31 of the prior year, divided by a life expectancy factor from IRS tables.6Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B – Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) If you own more than one Traditional IRA, you calculate the RMD separately for each account, then add the amounts together and withdraw the total from whichever IRA you choose.7Internal Revenue Service. RMD Comparison Chart (IRAs vs. Defined Contribution Plans) That flexibility lets you draw from the account where it makes the most sense.
Roth IRAs Follow Different Timing
Roth IRAs play by different rules. You are not required to take any distributions from a Roth IRA during your lifetime, no matter how old you get.5Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) Because contributions are made with after-tax dollars, there is no RMD trigger age, no forced withdrawals, and no annual calculation. A Roth can grow tax-free for your entire life.
The main timing constraint is the five-year rule. To withdraw earnings completely tax-free, two conditions must both be met: you must be at least 59½, and the account must have been open for at least five tax years. The clock starts on January 1 of the tax year you made your first Roth contribution. If your first contribution was for tax year 2024, the five-year period runs from January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2028. After that date, and once you’re 59½, every dollar comes out tax-free and penalty-free.
A separate five-year clock applies to Roth conversions. Each conversion starts a fresh clock, and withdrawing converted principal before that period ends (and before age 59½) can trigger the 10% early withdrawal penalty. Once you reach 59½, the penalty no longer applies regardless of whether the five-year period on a given conversion has elapsed.
Deadlines on the Way In
IRAs also have important deadlines for money going into the account. You can contribute for a given tax year anytime between January 1 of that year and the tax-filing deadline of the following year, typically April 15.8Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A – Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) Filing an extension does not extend the IRA contribution deadline. For 2026, the contribution limit is $7,500, or $8,600 if you are 50 or older (the base limit plus a $1,100 catch-up contribution).9Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
The 60-Day Rollover Window
If you take a distribution from one IRA and want to roll it into another, you have 60 days from the date you receive the funds to complete the deposit. Miss it and the distribution is treated as a taxable withdrawal, with the 10% early withdrawal penalty on top if you’re under 59½. You are also limited to one indirect IRA-to-IRA rollover per 12-month period across all your IRAs combined.10Internal Revenue Service. Rollovers of Retirement Plan and IRA Distributions
The one-per-year limit does not apply to trustee-to-trustee transfers (where the money moves directly between institutions without passing through your hands) or to Roth conversions.10Internal Revenue Service. Rollovers of Retirement Plan and IRA Distributions A direct trustee-to-trustee transfer is the safer path because it sidesteps both the 60-day clock and the one-rollover limit.
Inherited IRA Deadlines
When the original owner dies, the distribution rules change dramatically, and this is where the tightest deadlines in the IRA world show up.
The 10-Year Rule
Non-spouse beneficiaries who inherit an IRA after 2019 generally must empty the account by December 31 of the tenth year after the year of the owner’s death.11Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Beneficiary This applies to both inherited Traditional and inherited Roth IRAs.
The wrinkle: if the original owner had already reached their required beginning date, the beneficiary must also take annual distributions in years one through nine, with the balance out by the end of year ten. If the owner died before that age, no annual distributions are required during the 10-year window; the beneficiary just has to fully liquidate by the deadline. And if the original owner died in a year they owed an RMD but hadn’t yet taken it, the beneficiary is responsible for completing that final distribution.
Eligible Designated Beneficiaries
A narrow group can stretch distributions over their own life expectancy instead of being forced into the 10-year timeline. Eligible designated beneficiaries include a surviving spouse, a minor child of the deceased, a disabled or chronically ill individual, and anyone not more than ten years younger than the original owner.11Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Beneficiary A minor child’s eligible status ends at the age of majority, at which point the 10-year clock begins.
Surviving spouses have the most flexibility. They can roll the inherited IRA into their own IRA, effectively resetting the clock and delaying RMDs until they reach their own trigger age.
Penalties for Missed Deadlines
The penalty for failing to take your full RMD by the deadline is an excise tax of 25% of the shortfall, the difference between what you should have withdrawn and what you actually took.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4974 – Excise Tax on Certain Accumulations in Qualified Retirement Plans On a $20,000 RMD you forgot entirely, that’s a $5,000 tax bill before you even count the income tax on the distribution itself.
The penalty drops to 10% if you correct the mistake during what the tax code calls the correction window. That window runs from the date the penalty is imposed until the earlier of the IRS mailing you a notice of deficiency, the IRS assessing the tax, or the last day of the second tax year after the year you missed the distribution.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4974 – Excise Tax on Certain Accumulations in Qualified Retirement Plans Catch the error quickly, take the missed distribution, and file the appropriate return, and you’ll pay the reduced rate.
The same structure applies to inherited IRAs. Missing the 10-year liquidation deadline, or skipping a required annual distribution during the 10-year period, exposes the beneficiary to the same 25% excise tax on the amount that should have been withdrawn.5Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)