The case for delaying a first required minimum distribution to April 1 rests on flexibility. The risk is that Medicare reads both the delayed first RMD and the second one as income from the same calendar year, with consequences that can follow a retiree for the next two years.
A retiree who turned 73 in 2025 used the congressional option to postpone the first RMD from December 31, 2025, to April 1, 2026. The second RMD remained due December 31, 2026. Both withdrawals landed on the 2026 return. For someone holding a $2 million IRA, the first RMD can approach $75,500 and the second can approach $78,500, stacking more than $150,000 onto a single return before pensions, taxable Social Security, or investment income enter the calculation.
What Medicare does with that number
Medicare sets Part B and Part D premiums using modified adjusted gross income from two years prior. Income reported for 2026 will help determine 2028 premiums. For this calculation, modified adjusted gross income equals adjusted gross income from Form 1040 line 11 plus tax-exempt interest from line 2a. Social Security does not average the two RMDs or reassign the first one back to 2025. It reads the figure on the 2026 return.
The 2026 IRMAA schedule shows the scale of the exposure. A married couple whose joint MAGI falls between $274,001 and $342,000 owes an additional $480.80 per month in combined Part B and Part D surcharges, nearly $5,770 for the year. The 2028 thresholds have not been announced, but the structure holds: crossing a bracket line reprices premiums for the entire year.
The counterargument
Form SSA-44 can lower IRMAA when income drops after a qualifying life-changing event. Marriage, divorce, the death of a spouse, work reduction, work stoppage, and loss of pension income all qualify. A decision to delay an RMD does not. A Roth conversion does not. A voluntary property sale does not. If a higher MAGI resulted from a timing choice and the return is accurate, SSA-44 cannot spread that income across two years. A surviving spouse whose income fell because of a death can request that Social Security use newer income figures, but that relief flows from the qualifying event itself, not from the two-RMD pile-up.
On balance, April 1 remains a legitimate tool only when the two-RMD stack gets modeled before December 31. Taking the first RMD by December 31 instead keeps both distributions on separate returns, eliminating the stacking problem before it starts. For retirees who have already locked both withdrawals into 2026, a qualified charitable distribution can satisfy part or all of an RMD without adding that amount to adjusted gross income, reducing the MAGI figure before it reaches the 2028 premium brackets.