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
A change now lets people who became disabled by age 46 open a tax-favored ABLE account
As of January 1, 2026, millions of disabled Americans who were locked out of one of the most flexible savings tools in the tax code...
An income-only trust can qualify a retiree for Medicaid nursing care in states with a hard income cap
In roughly half the states, being even a few dollars a month over the Medicaid income limit can disqualify a retiree from long-term care coverage...
Medicaid estate recovery can be waived when repayment would cause a survivor real hardship
Many families are blindsided months after a parent’s death by a letter from the state seeking repayment of that parent’s Medicaid long-term care, a claim...
A PACE program covers all of a frail senior’s care with no premium for those on both Medicare and Medicaid
For a frail older adult who needs nursing-home-level care but wants to stay at home, the bills can arrive from every direction at once: doctors,...
Medicaid’s self-directed home care can let you hire and pay a family member as the caregiver
Families who take on the daily grind of caring for an aging parent often assume the work has to be unpaid. In much of the...
Medicaid lets you keep one home, one car and a prepaid burial while qualifying for nursing-home care
The fear that keeps many families from applying for Medicaid long-term care is that the program will force them to sell everything first. It will...
Medicaid’s five-year look-back turns recent gifts into a penalty that delays nursing-home coverage
A generous gift to a grandchild or a quiet transfer of the family home can quietly cost a retiree months of paid nursing-home care. When...
Social Security’s 2027 raise is set for October 14, and it is tracking above this year’s increase
Retirees will not have to wait much longer to learn how much their Social Security checks will grow next year. The annual cost-of-living adjustment for...
A national registry tracks down forgotten 401(k) money from old jobs
Roughly $1.65 trillion in retirement savings is sitting in 401(k) and pension accounts that their owners have lost track of, scattered across former employers who...
A free federal search finds old pensions from employers that closed
Millions of dollars in earned pension benefits sit unclaimed because the people owed them lost track of a job, moved without leaving a forwarding address,...
A pension from a failed company is insured by the federal PBGC up to a yearly maximum
When a company collapses and its pension plan folds with it, retirees do not simply lose the checks they were promised. A federal agency, the...
An inherited Roth IRA passes to heirs completely tax-free, unlike a traditional inherited IRA
Two heirs can inherit the same dollar amount in retirement accounts and face wildly different tax bills, and the reason comes down to which letter...
Retirees in the lowest brackets can pay 0% federal tax on long-term capital gains
A retiree can sell an appreciated stock or fund held more than a year and, in the right income range, owe the IRS nothing on...
The gift-tax annual exclusion lets you give thousands to each person every year, tax-free
Every year the federal government lets one person hand money or property to as many others as they choose without filing a single tax form,...
Seniors 65 and older get a higher income threshold before they must file a federal tax return
A retiree living on a modest fixed income may not owe the IRS anything, and in many cases is not even required to file a...
A new law raised the state-and-local tax deduction cap to $40,000, easing the bill for many homeowners
For nearly a decade, a $10,000 ceiling on the federal deduction for state and local taxes squeezed homeowners in high-tax areas, capping the property and...
First-time Medicare Advantage enrollees get a 12-month trial right to return to Original Medicare with guaranteed Medigap
A retiree who tries a Medicare Advantage plan for the first time and dislikes it is not locked in. Federal rules give first-time enrollees a...
Employer or union drug coverage counts as creditable, letting you delay Medicare Part D with no penalty
Turning 65 does not force a working retiree to sign up for a Medicare drug plan right away, and enrolling too soon can even mean...
A high-deductible Medigap Plan G cuts the premium for healthy retirees
Two retirees can hold the same Plan G coverage and pay wildly different premiums, and the reason is a version of the policy that most...
Medicare covers cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation after a heart attack or serious lung disease
After a heart attack or a diagnosis of severe lung disease, Medicare will help pay for a structured recovery program of monitored exercise, education and...