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’s 2027 drug cap falls to $2,400, then covered prescriptions cost nothing
The most a Medicare drug plan will require an enrollee to spend out of pocket on covered prescriptions in 2027 is set at $2,400, and...
A transfer-on-death deed passes your home to heirs without going through probate
For many older homeowners, the family house is the single largest asset they will leave behind, and the way it passes to the next generation...
Original Medicare now requires prior approval for some procedures in a handful of states
For decades, one of the clearest advantages of traditional Medicare over private Medicare Advantage plans was the absence of prior authorization. A patient in Original...
Social Security disability checks convert automatically to retirement checks at full retirement age, with no drop in the amount
Millions of Americans who collect Social Security Disability Insurance carry a quiet worry into their sixties: whether reaching retirement age will shrink the payment they...
Social Security’s retirement trust fund is projected to pay just 78% of benefits after 2032 unless Congress acts
The reserve that cushions Social Security’s retirement benefits is now projected to run dry in the fourth quarter of 2032, and once it does, incoming...
Medicare’s 2027 plan-change notices arrive by September 30, and ignoring yours can lock you into a worse plan
Each fall, every Medicare Advantage and Part D plan mails a document that decides how much its members pay the following year, and it is...
Who still pays federal tax on Social Security? Retirees whose combined income tops limits frozen since 1984
A retiree owes federal income tax on Social Security only when a specific measure of income climbs above $25,000 for a single filer or $32,000...
Starting in 2027 the government will deposit up to $1,000 a year into low- and middle-income savers’ retirement accounts
Beginning with the 2027 tax year, the federal government will start putting money directly into the retirement accounts of lower- and middle-income workers who save,...
Roth 401(k) accounts no longer force required withdrawals during your lifetime
For the 2024 tax year and every year since, a designated Roth account held inside a 401(k) or 403(b) has stopped forcing its owner to...
Rolling a 401(k) straight into an IRA avoids the automatic 20% tax withholding a check in your name triggers
The difference between two ways of moving a 401(k) into an IRA can cost a saver thousands of dollars, and it comes down to whose...
Who qualifies for the $6,000 senior tax deduction? People 65 and older with income under $75,000
A new federal tax break aimed squarely at older Americans took effect for the 2025 tax year, and its eligibility rules are narrower than the...
The average forgotten 401(k) holds $66,691, and a free federal database finds yours
Decades of job-hopping have left Americans holding an enormous pile of retirement money they have simply lost track of. Research counts roughly 31.9 million forgotten...
A community spouse can keep up to $162,660 in assets when a partner enters a nursing home on Medicaid
When one spouse moves into a nursing home and turns to Medicaid to cover the bill, the partner who stays home does not have to...
A shared nursing-home room now runs $72,000 to $127,750 a year, and Medicaid helps only after savings fall below $2,000
The price of a nursing home has moved well beyond what most retirement incomes can absorb. A shared, semi-private room now costs between $72,000 and...
Medicaid can bill a senior’s estate after death for nursing-home care it paid
Medicaid is often described as the program that pays for nursing-home care once a person’s savings are gone, but that description leaves out the final...
About 2 million seniors who qualify for Medicare’s Extra Help skip roughly $11.4 billion in drug savings each year
A federal program built to lower prescription-drug costs for the poorest Medicare beneficiaries is one of the most underused benefits in the entire system. About...
Two nights in the hospital under observation instead of admitted can cost thousands and block nursing-home coverage
A patient can spend two or three nights in a hospital bed, receive tests, medication, and monitoring, and still never be admitted as an inpatient....
Original Medicare covers no routine dental, vision, or hearing, a gap that surprises many the year they retire
Enrolling in Medicare at 65 does not close the most predictable health expenses of later life. Original Medicare, the federal program made up of Part...
$274 will be Medicare’s 2027 price for Ozempic and Wegovy, down 71%
Medicare’s negotiated price for the blockbuster semaglutide drugs will fall to $274 for a 30-day supply in 2027, a 71 percent cut from a list...
A dropped Medicare Advantage plan triggers a guaranteed right to buy any Medigap policy
When a Medicare Advantage plan terminates its contract or stops serving a member’s area, federal rules can open a guaranteed-issue window to buy a Medigap...