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
Medicare covers skilled home health care at no cost for a homebound patient
Medicare will cover the full cost of skilled home health care for beneficiaries who meet a specific two-part eligibility test, and it will not charge...
Skipping a tax refund’s direct-deposit split leaves free retirement savings on the table
A federal tax refund is only as useful as where it lands, and for most filers it lands in a single checking account by default....
A single low-income application can unlock both SSI and, in most states, automatic Medicaid
One federal application can decide two benefit programs at once. When the Social Security Administration approves a claim for Supplemental Security Income, roughly two-thirds of...
Medicaid home-care waivers pay for help at home instead of a nursing facility
More than 86 percent of Medicaid beneficiaries who need long-term care now receive it at home or in their community instead of inside a nursing...
A Roth IRA’s earnings can be taxed if pulled before a five-year clock, even after age 59½
A five-year holding requirement written into federal tax law can still produce an income-tax bill on Roth IRA earnings, even for savers who have already...
Spouses raising a worker’s young child can draw Social Security at any age
A rule buried inside Social Security’s spousal-benefit program lets a husband or wife start collecting a monthly check decades before the usual retirement clock even...
Congress returns September 14 with four Social Security bills waiting, including plans to lift the payroll tax cap
Congress returns from its August recess on September 14 with four Social Security bills already sitting in committee, each proposing a different fix for a...
Families who finalized an adoption in 2026 can claim up to $17,670, and part of it is refundable for the first time
Families who finalized an adoption in 2026 can claim a federal credit worth up to $17,670 per child, an increase from the $17,280 ceiling that...
Naming a representative payee lets a trusted person manage Social Security checks for someone who no longer can
When an aging parent’s memory starts to fail, or an adult child’s disability makes it impossible to track a monthly budget, the Social Security Administration...
A high-deductible Medigap plan can slash the monthly premium for a healthy retiree
A retiree shopping for Medigap Plan G in 2026 faces a fork most comparison charts gloss over. The standard version pays nearly every Medicare-covered cost...
Medicare covers anti-rejection drugs for life after a kidney transplant
A kidney transplant does not end a patient’s need for immunosuppressive drugs — it starts a lifelong prescription that, for one group of Medicare enrollees,...
In the year you retire, a monthly earnings test lets you collect a full Social Security check even after a high-earning start
A worker who earns $37,000 in the first half of 2026 and stops working might assume Social Security will withhold every remaining check, since the...
Social Security’s special minimum benefit lifts checks for long, low-wage careers
For a shrinking group of retirees who spent decades in low-paying jobs, Social Security has built in a backstop most beneficiaries never hear about: the...
Higher-income retirees pay an extra Medicare drug-plan surcharge set by their tax return from two years earlier
Fewer than one in ten Medicare beneficiaries pays more for prescription drug coverage than the sticker price listed by their plan, but for that minority...
A special Medicare plan for people on both Medicare and Medicaid can wipe out most out-of-pocket costs
Federal law makes it illegal for a doctor’s office, hospital or pharmacy to bill certain Medicare patients for anything at all, yet regulators keep issuing...
Medicare’s telehealth coverage is not ending September 30 — the rules are funded through 2027
A September 30 deadline has been circulating among Medicare beneficiaries as the day telehealth coverage disappears, but that date has nothing to do with virtual...
A bill would let disabled workers collect Social Security during the five-month wait that now leaves them with no check
A bipartisan bill introduced in both chambers of Congress this year would let Social Security Disability Insurance recipients start collecting benefits immediately after approval, instead...
Medicare will post the full 2027 plan prices in mid-to-late September, the first real chance to compare next year’s costs before open enrollment
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will publish the complete slate of 2027 Medicare Advantage and Part D plan prices in mid-to-late September, the...
The letter that spells out your 2027 Medicare changes lands by September 30, and ignoring it can lock you into a costlier plan
One envelope lands in every Medicare Advantage and Part D enrollee’s mailbox no later than September 30, and what it says determines whether 2027 coverage...
A Medicare drug plan’s formulary can change each January, dropping a covered medication
Every Medicare Part D plan maintains its own formulary — the specific list of drugs it covers — and that list is not fixed for...