<prompt> Human: Hoping I dont get pitchforked out of the subreddit with this question, but if your money is taxed at the tax rate at the time you take out your money, why cant you just get a job at McDonalds before you take out your money and get taxed at a really low rate?  <response>: IRA distributions are taxed as ordinary income, so if a single retired person withdraws 40,000 over the course of a year, the first 9,075 is taxed at 10, the next chunk up to 36,900 is taxed at 15, and the remainder at 25. Having a job would simply increase the amount of ordinary income. 