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 recalculates a working retiree’s check each year and raises it when a new year beats an old one
Retirement does not freeze a Social Security benefit in place. Every year, the Social Security Administration reviews the earnings of people already collecting checks, and...
Suspending Social Security at full retirement age grows the check about 8% a year
Delaying Social Security is usually framed as a decision made before the first check ever arrives, but the program offers a second chance at that...
Withdrawing a Social Security application within 12 months lets a retiree reset the clock, but every dollar already paid must go back
Social Security treats the decision to start retirement benefits as close to final, yet it leaves a single narrow escape hatch. A retiree who files...
Tipped and overtime workers can deduct up to $25,000 of tips and much overtime pay through 2028 under the new law
A new federal law lets tipped workers deduct up to $25,000 of reported tips and lets many overtime workers deduct a large share of their...
Fifteen Medicare drugs, including Ozempic and Wegovy, get lower negotiated prices on January 1 that could cut what 11 million enrollees pay
Fifteen high-cost Medicare Part D drugs, among them the diabetes and weight-loss medicines Ozempic and Wegovy, will carry lower government-negotiated prices starting January 1, 2027....
Social Security can now withhold up to 50% of a monthly retirement check to claw back an overpayment, up from a 10% cap
The Social Security Administration can now recover an overpayment by withholding up to half of a retiree’s monthly Title II benefit, a default rate five...
UnitedHealth, Humana and Aetna are all trimming Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, and nearly 3 million seniors may have to switch
Three of the largest Medicare Advantage insurers are pulling out of unprofitable markets for 2027, and the combined retreat could push close to 3 million...
A pour-over will moves any forgotten assets into your living trust at death
A living trust only governs the property actually placed inside it, and that single condition trips up a surprising number of otherwise careful estate plans....
A no-contest clause can discourage heirs from challenging a will
A contested will can drain an estate faster than any tax, turning a modest inheritance into years of legal fees and permanent rifts between siblings....
A digital-asset clause in a will lets heirs reach online accounts and crypto
A lifetime now lives partly on servers no relative can open. Email archives, cloud photo libraries, frequent-flyer balances, online brokerage logins, and cryptocurrency wallets all...
A spendthrift trust shields an heir’s inheritance from their creditors
An inheritance handed to an heir outright can be gone within a year, and not always because the heir spent it. A lump sum that...
Medicaid estate recovery can skip a home when a sibling with equity lived there
For families whose main asset is the house, the biggest fear after a parent enters a nursing home is not the monthly bill but what...
A gift-and-annuity “half-a-loaf” plan can shield part of savings from Medicaid’s look-back
Middle-income families facing a nursing-home bill of $8,000 or more a month often believe they must spend down nearly everything before Medicaid will help. A...
A personal-care agreement lets a family pay a relative for care without a Medicaid penalty
Families who care for an aging parent often assume they cannot pay a son or daughter for that help without sabotaging a future Medicaid application....
Donating appreciated stock skips the capital-gains tax and still earns a deduction
A retiree who wants to make a large gift and happens to own stock that has soared since it was bought holds a far more...
Bunching several years of donations into one can clear the standard deduction
Since the standard deduction roughly doubled several years ago, the great majority of taxpayers no longer itemize, and a quiet consequence is that their charitable...
A charitable remainder trust can pay you income for life and trim the tax bill
A retiree sitting on a stock position or a rental property that has quadrupled in value faces an awkward math problem. Selling frees up cash...
Naming a trust as your IRA beneficiary can speed up the tax unless it’s drafted right
Naming a trust to inherit an IRA sounds like tidy estate planning: a way to control how heirs receive the money, protect a spendthrift child,...
A health savings account can reimburse years of old medical bills if you kept the receipts
Most tax breaks come with a clock ticking against them. A health savings account is the rare exception. There is no deadline for pulling money...
A 1035 exchange can turn a life-insurance policy into long-term-care coverage tax-free
An old whole-life policy bought decades ago often ends up doing a job it was never meant to do. The children are grown, the mortgage...