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
Required retirement withdrawals now start at 73, and missing one triggers a steep penalty
The age at which the government forces savers to start emptying their tax-deferred retirement accounts has climbed to 73, giving many workers an extra window...
Heirs must empty an inherited IRA within 10 years, and many now owe a withdrawal each year
Inheriting a parent’s individual retirement account once came with a comfortable pace: an heir could stretch withdrawals across a lifetime and let the balance grow...
Roth 401(k) accounts no longer force required withdrawals during your lifetime
Two retirement accounts that were supposed to serve the same purpose spent years being treated differently, until a change that took effect in 2024 finally...
Delaying Social Security past full retirement age adds about 8% a year until you turn 70
Every month a worker postpones Social Security past full retirement age raises the eventual benefit by two-thirds of one percent, which compounds to roughly 8...
Claim Social Security after full retirement age and you can request up to six months as a lump sum
Claiming Social Security after full retirement age comes with an option that sounds appealing and hides a real cost. A worker who applies later than...
Workers under full retirement age can earn up to $24,480 in 2026 before Social Security holds back benefits
The 2026 earnings limit for Social Security recipients who keep working sits at $24,480. A beneficiary who stays below full retirement age for the entire...
The new $6,000 senior deduction means many retirees will owe no federal tax on their Social Security
Buried in the 2025 tax overhaul is an extra deduction of $6,000 for Americans age 65 and older, or $12,000 for a married couple who...
Medicare caps your 2026 out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,100, then covered prescriptions cost nothing
Medicare’s Part D benefit now carries a hard ceiling on what a beneficiary spends out of pocket on covered prescriptions: $2,100 in 2026, up from...
Trump’s drug-pricing order aims to lower what seniors pay out of pocket on Medicare
A drug-pricing order pushed by the Trump administration aims to lower what Medicare beneficiaries pay out of pocket by tying certain U.S. prices to the...
Humana will drop Medicare Advantage plans for about 600,000 members in 2027
Humana plans to discontinue Medicare Advantage plans covering roughly 600,000 members in 2027, a cut the insurer confirmed for investors on its July 29, 2026...
No tax on tips and overtime is now law, with deductions worth up to $25,000
A sweeping 2025 budget law created two federal tax breaks that let millions of tipped and hourly workers subtract part of their earnings from taxable...
A Senate bill would limit Social Security overpayment clawbacks to 10 years if it clears the Senate
A bill introduced in the Senate would stop the government from chasing decades-old Social Security overpayments that beneficiaries often never knew existed. The Social Security...
UnitedHealthcare’s preliminary 2027 plan would drop Medicare Advantage in 34 counties across 12 states
UnitedHealthcare has circulated a preliminary 2027 blueprint that would pull its Medicare Advantage plans out of 34 counties spread across 12 states, a shift that...
Trump signed an order clearing the way for 401(k) plans to hold private equity and crypto
A presidential order signed in August 2025 set in motion the biggest potential change to workplace retirement plans in a generation, directing federal regulators to...
Social Security will no longer switch your direct deposit by phone, blocking a common theft
Social Security has shut one of the easier doors that thieves used to steal a monthly benefit. The agency will no longer change a recipient’s...
Medicare’s free yearly wellness visit is not the full physical many seniors expect
Many people turning 65 assume Medicare hands them an annual head-to-toe physical, the kind of thorough once-over a doctor might have delivered during working years....
Medicare’s new payment plan lets you spread a year of drug costs into monthly installments instead of paying all at once
A retiree who fills an expensive prescription in January can face a bill of several hundred dollars in a single trip to the pharmacy, and...
Heirs inherit your home at its value the day you die, erasing the gains tax
One of the largest tax breaks in the code is one heirs rarely have to ask for. When someone inherits a home, its cost basis...
A transfer-on-death deed passes your home to heirs without going through probate
When a homeowner dies with the deed in their name alone, the house typically has to pass through probate, the court-supervised process of settling an...
A shared nursing-home room now runs $72,000 to $127,750 a year, and Medicaid steps in only after savings fall below $2,000
A shared room in a nursing home carries one of the steepest recurring bills in American retirement, and the range is wide enough to reshape...