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
SNAP benefits for about 440,000 Minnesotans are expected to run about $5 a month lower on average than they would otherwise, starting October 1, 2027, the state says
Minnesota expects about 440,000 people who receive SNAP to get about $5 a month less on average in 2027 than they would have without a...
About 417,000 Arizona AHCCCS adults ages 19 to 64 must show 80 hours a month of approved activity or qualifying income starting January 1, 2027, or risk losing Medicaid
Arizona adults in Medicaid’s expansion group will have to prove 80 hours a month of approved activity, or at least $580 in monthly income, to...
The IRS says people who have not filed a tax return in more than six years may need a different way to pay than its free Direct Pay tool
The IRS says taxpayers who have never filed a tax return, or who have not filed in more than six years, may need to use...
The IRS is sending automatic refunds to adoptive families who carried forward unused adoption credits, worth up to $5,000 per child, with most paid by year’s end
The IRS has started sending automatic refunds to more than 50,000 taxpayers who carried forward unused adoption credits from earlier years, and it expects most...
Social Security now runs an electronic search of SSI applicants’ bank accounts to find ones they never reported, and no one can get SSI without allowing it
Social Security now runs an electronic search of the bank accounts of people applying for Supplemental Security Income, looking for accounts the applicant never mentioned....
Under Trump’s paper-check phase-out, the IRS gives people holding a CP53E refund notice one chance and 30 days to add a bank account, or a check comes after six weeks
About 4.2 million individual taxpayers received a CP53E notice from the IRS, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported in September. The letter means...
Social Security says a representative payee must spend a beneficiary’s check on that person’s needs and save what is left
A representative payee, the person Social Security appoints to manage someone else’s benefits, has to spend the check on that person’s needs and put away...
VA plans to keep mailing residency checks to about 14,593 beneficiaries a year paid at the full-dollar rate
VA generally pays benefits based on Philippine service at half the usual rate, unless the veteran or survivor lives in the United States. That is...
VA processed a record 3,111,399 disability compensation claims in fiscal 2026
The Department of Veterans Affairs processed 3,111,399 disability compensation claims in fiscal year 2026, more than it has ever finished in a single year. The...
South Dakota will limit Medicaid expansion adults to one month of retroactive coverage starting January 1, 2027
South Dakota will cut the backdated coverage available to Medicaid expansion adults from three months to one month for applications on or after January 1,...
North Carolina and Illinois expansion adults renew Medicaid every six months from January 1
Medicaid expansion adults in North Carolina and Illinois will renew their coverage every six months instead of once a year, starting January 1, 2027. Both...
Insurers will offer about 5,532 Medicare Advantage plans in 2027, down from 5,553
Twenty-one. That is how many Medicare Advantage plans disappear from the national lineup next year, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CMS...
The IRS added nine more Indiana counties, including Cass, Grant and Putnam, to storm relief that moves filing and payment deadlines to February 1, 2027
The IRS has added nine more Indiana counties to its storm relief: Cass, Fountain, Grant, Parke, Pike, Putnam, Starke, Vermillion and Warren. Taxpayers in those...
Top-earning Social Security couples who retired this year get a $3,600 combined increase from the 3.6% COLA, a budget watchdog estimates
The highest-earning Social Security couples who retired this year at their normal retirement age will get a $3,600 combined increase from the 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment,...
Martin’s Point Generations Advantage members who see InterMed doctors lose them in network on January 1, 2027, when InterMed stops accepting the plans
About 4,500 patients of InterMed, a Portland practice, are about to find out that their doctor will be out of network, according to InterMed. Martin’s...
SSI recipients who appeal a payment cut in writing within 10 days of receiving the notice keep getting their current payment until Social Security reconsiders the decision
People on Supplemental Security Income who get a notice that their payment will drop can keep the current amount coming during an appeal, but only...
Frontier Communications 401(k) participants who held Verizon stock from 2012 to 2018 share a $14.05 million settlement, with a December 8 rollover-form deadline
A $14.05 million class action settlement over Verizon stock in the Frontier Communications retirement plan is headed to a federal judge in Connecticut for final...
Social Security’s 3.6% COLA adds about $900 a year for the average retiree, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates
The 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment that takes effect in January will add about $900 a year to the average retiree’s benefits, according to an estimate from...
Social Security’s revised heart-disease disability rules take effect October 30 and will apply to claims still pending that day, not only to new applications
Heart-related disability claims that are still undecided on October 30 will be judged under Social Security’s revised rules, not the old ones. The agency’s new...
Wellcare’s Arkansas Medicare Advantage coverage ends December 31, and members whose plan is not renewing can join a new plan through the end of February 2027
A letter is due in Arkansas mailboxes this month for people whose Wellcare Medicare Advantage plan is not coming back. Wellcare says affected coverage ends...