Retirement & Taxes
Long-term financial planning, retirement accounts, government benefits, tax law, and IRS rules. Covers the intersection of policy and personal finance that affects how people save, invest, and plan ahead.
Latest in Retirement & Taxes
Claiming Social Security at 62 permanently cuts the check up to 30%
Filing for Social Security at the earliest possible age, 62, does not just start payments sooner — it permanently locks in a smaller monthly check...
Medicare covers a screening colonoscopy at no cost, but removing a polyp during it can turn it into a billed procedure
Medicare’s screening colonoscopy is one of the few tests in American health care that is genuinely free at the point of care — until the...
Original Medicare pays nothing toward routine dental, vision or hearing care
Original Medicare covers hospital stays, doctor visits and a long list of medical services, but it draws a hard line at three categories many new...
Medicare’s Part B late-enrollment penalty adds 10% a year, for life
A retiree who waits too long to sign up for Medicare Part B does not face a one-time late fee. Medicare adds 10 percent to...
Filing for Social Security before full retirement age can force you to take a spousal benefit at the same time
Anyone who assumes they can file for a spouse’s Social Security benefit at 63 while letting their own retirement benefit keep growing toward age 70...
SSDI’s trial-work period lets you test a job for nine months, penalty-free
A Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiary who wants to find out whether they can handle a job again does not have to choose between staying...
Social Security’s disability grid gives applicants over 50 an easier approval
Two people can file for Social Security Disability Insurance with the identical back injury and the identical doctor’s notes, and one can be approved while...
Medicare drug plans get pricier for 2027, and the government expects 45% of enrollees to pay more than $10 extra a month
Medicare’s drug-plan premiums are about to move in a direction most enrollees have not seen in two years: up. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid...
Defaulted student loans can now take 15% of a Social Security check, and about 452,000 retirees are in the government’s sights
The federal government can now withhold up to 15% of a monthly Social Security check to collect on a defaulted federal student loan, and roughly...
Workers who earned more than $150,000 last year must now route 401(k) catch-up contributions into a Roth
A $150,000 line drawn in 2025 paychecks now decides how the Internal Revenue Service taxes retirement catch-up savings. As of the 2026 plan year, any...
The federal pension agency refreshed its unclaimed-benefits list on August 5
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation refreshed its national database of unclaimed pension benefits on August 5, the latest in a series of quarterly updates for...
About 31.9 million forgotten 401(k) accounts hold an estimated $2.1 trillion
Roughly 31.9 million 401(k) accounts across the country now sit forgotten by the people who own them, holding an estimated $2.1 trillion in retirement assets,...
Supplemental Security Income usually brings Medicaid automatically the same month
A Supplemental Security Income award worth $994 a month in 2026 carries a second, quieter payout: in most states, the same approval that starts the...
Original Medicare covers the first 60 days of a hospital stay
Original Medicare’s inpatient hospital deductible for 2026 is $1,736, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services records show that figure buys a beneficiary something unusual...
Medicare’s Part D late penalty adds 1% for every uncovered month, permanently
Every month a Medicare beneficiary goes without Part D or other creditable prescription drug coverage adds a permanent 1 percent surcharge to the eventual drug...
Medicare’s yearly cap on drug costs starts over every January
Every enrollee in Medicare’s drug benefit who reaches catastrophic coverage watches the meter reset to zero the instant the calendar turns to January. The reset...
A House bill called the Medicare Advantage Improvement Act of 2026 would tighten the rules insurers use to deny care
Six lawmakers from both parties, led by Pennsylvania Republican John Joyce, introduced H.R. 8375, the Medicare Advantage Improvement Act, on April 23, 2026, alongside a...
The Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act would force Medicare Advantage plans to answer prior-authorization requests electronically
A House committee voted 42 to 0 on July 15 to advance the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act, pushing a Medicare Advantage prior-authorization...
Insulin stays capped at $35 a month under Medicare drug plans in 2027
A one-month supply of each covered insulin product will still cost no more than $35 in 2027, the same figure that has held since the...
Medicare’s open enrollment runs October 15 to December 7, the only stretch most seniors can change a plan for January
October 15 opens the only 54-day stretch each year when most people with Medicare can rewrite their coverage for the following January, and the 2027...