Upon retirement, all distributions from defined benefit plans are taxable

ordinary income

Explanation:

All the distributions upon retirement from the defined benefit plans are taxed as ordinary income.

A defined benefit plan is defined as a pension plan where an employee gets a lump sum amount as a pension after retirement. But the distributions of full amount of the benefit plan are taxed as an ordinary income.

Minimum distributions are needed for a year where an employee attains 70½ years age or retires, whichever comes later.