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
Social Security’s average retirement check rose $56 a month this year to $2,071
The average Social Security retirement check rose to $2,071 a month in January 2026, a $56 increase produced by the Social Security Administration’s 2.8 percent...
The IRS clarified in August that only the premium half of overtime pay counts toward the new deduction
A worker earning $20 an hour who logs ten hours of overtime and receives double pay — $400 instead of $300 — might assume the...
Treasury and the IRS want to cut off refundable child tax credit and earned income credit payments to non-citizens, with a hearing set for October 14
On August 19, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service proposed a rule that would treat the refunded share of four tax credits as...
Social Security’s field offices are running on the thinnest staffing since 1967, and some can only answer the phone through September 8
Federal payroll records cited by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities show the Social Security Administration employed just 49,880 workers in January 2026, the...
Medicare’s standard Part B premium climbed $17.90 to $202.90 this year, swallowing nearly a third of the average retiree’s raise
The standard Medicare Part B premium rose $17.90 to $202.90 a month for 2026, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, arriving the...
Supplemental Security Income pays an individual $994 a month in 2026, and $2,000 in the bank can end the check entirely
Supplemental Security Income’s federal payment standard climbed to $994 a month for an individual and $1,491 for a couple on January 1, 2026, after the...
A bipartisan bill from Tom Kean and Young Kim would erase a Medicare surcharge that costs some seniors $241 a month
A bill introduced in the House on July 15 would rewrite the Social Security Act formula that decides which Medicare enrollees pay an income-based surcharge,...
Bernie Sanders’ Social Security Expansion Act would lift benefits about $2,400 a year by taxing wages above $250,000
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ Social Security Expansion Act, reintroduced in February 2025 as S. 770 with ten Senate Democratic co-sponsors, would raise the average beneficiary’s...
Social Security’s retirement fund runs dry in late 2032, and the automatic cut would average about $500 a month for a retiree
The fourth quarter of 2032 is the date stamped on Social Security’s own accounting books: the point at which the retirement program’s trust fund runs...
Four Social Security bills are waiting when Congress returns September 14, and two of them would raise the payroll tax cap to keep checks whole
Two deadlines fall on the same date this year, and only one of them was planned that way. September 14 is when the Senate returns...
An inventory of every account spares heirs from losing track of money
When an account holder dies, the money in bank, brokerage and insurance accounts does not automatically find its way to the family. Heirs can only...
An irrevocable trust moves assets out of an estate to shield them from care costs
Medicaid pays for long-term nursing home care only after an applicant has spent down nearly all countable assets, and that spend-down is what can consume...
A step-up in basis erases the tax on a lifetime of gains when heirs inherit a home or investments
When someone inherits a house or a brokerage account, the tax code performs a quiet erasure. The asset’s cost basis — the figure used to...
A low-cost index fund’s tiny fee leaves far more in a retiree’s account than an active fund over time
Every mutual fund and exchange-traded fund charges an annual operating cost, expressed as a percentage of assets called the expense ratio, and it is deducted...
A bond ladder staggers maturities so a retiree never has to sell at a loss
A bond ladder answers a specific problem that surfaces whenever interest rates rise: a bond bought earlier at a lower rate loses market value, and...
A Miller trust can qualify someone over a state’s Medicaid income limit for coverage
In a set of states known as income-cap states, an applicant whose monthly income sits even a few dollars above the Medicaid long-term-care limit can...
Long-term-care insurance bought earlier in life can spare a family from spending down savings for a nursing home
Long-term-care insurance is one of the few tools that can keep a nursing-home stay from draining a household’s savings, but it works on a narrow...
Form 8888 splits a tax refund straight into an IRA, saving it automatically
The Internal Revenue Service lets a filer divide a single federal tax refund across as many as three separate accounts, and one of those destinations...
Consolidating scattered old retirement accounts can cut fees and simplify the required withdrawals later
A worker who changes jobs several times over a career can end up with a trail of forgotten retirement accounts — a 401(k) at each...
A pension holder can often take a lump sum, but the monthly annuity usually protects a surviving spouse better
When a traditional pension comes due, many plans present a choice that is easy to underestimate: a single large lump sum now, or a smaller...