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
Buy a stock back within 30 days and the wash-sale rule can postpone your tax loss
The wash-sale rule is a timing rule disguised as a trading rule. An investor may sell stock at a genuine economic loss, buy back into...
Stock losses can offset $3,000 of ordinary income each year, with leftovers carrying forward
A losing stock position does not automatically produce a tax deduction equal to the loss. Federal rules first force gains and losses through a netting...
The Labor Department’s lost-and-found database can reconnect workers with forgotten retirement plans
A federal search can now bridge one of the hardest gaps in retirement planning: remembering who holds a benefit from an employer that changed names,...
Workplace emergency-savings accounts can hold $2,600 in 2026 and allow tax-free withdrawals
A pension-linked emergency savings account puts a small cash reserve inside an employer retirement plan without treating every withdrawal like a retirement raid. The 2026...
$7,789.77 a month is PBGC’s 2026 pension guarantee ceiling for a 65-year-old
The federal pension backstop has a large 2026 headline number and a much narrower legal meaning. PBGC lists $7,789.77 a month as the maximum guarantee...
A family’s Social Security total can top out at 150% to 180% of the worker’s benefit
A spouse and children can each qualify for Social Security on one worker’s earnings record, but the individual awards do not simply stack without limit....
Social Security can trim $57 a month for a fee-charging representative payee
A representative payee usually cannot charge a Social Security beneficiary for managing a check. The exception is a qualified organization that receives written authorization from...
New earnings can raise a retiree’s Social Security check retroactive to January
A retiree who keeps working can receive more than wages from the extra year. Social Security reviews working beneficiaries’ earnings records annually and recalculates the...
$1,690 in monthly earnings can stop a disability check after Social Security’s trial period
The same paycheck can be harmless to an SSDI benefit in one month and stop it in another. During Social Security’s nine-month trial work period,...
Social Security disability beneficiaries can test working for nine months and keep full checks
Returning to work does not automatically shut off Social Security Disability Insurance. The program gives beneficiaries at least nine trial-work months in which earnings can...
Social Security has expedited more than 150,000 disability decisions through an examiner shortcut since 2025
Social Security says experienced disability examiners have expedited more than 150,000 decisions since 2025 by issuing certain fully favorable determinations without waiting for the ordinary...
A new Medicaid rule will cap the home equity that lets seniors qualify for nursing-home care at $1 million in 2028
A change tucked into the sweeping 2025 federal budget law will reshape how much home equity a senior can hold and still qualify for Medicaid...
About 4 million Americans turn 65 each year, and most retire without a pension
Roughly 4 million Americans cross the traditional retirement age of 65 every year right now, the largest such wave in the nation’s history. Yet the...
$464 billion in annuities sold last year, a record, as buyers chase guaranteed income
Americans poured a record $464.1 billion into annuities last year, more than in any year before, as savers rattled by market swings and uncertain interest...
New 401(k) plans must now automatically enroll workers at 3% to 10% of pay
A worker who starts a job at a newer company now begins saving for retirement automatically, whether or not they ever fill out a form....
The IRS has shut down its free Direct File tool for the 2026 filing season
The free, government-run tax program that let some Americans file directly with the IRS at no cost will not return for the 2026 filing season....
The 1099-K tax-form threshold is back to $20,000, sparing casual online sellers surprise forms
Anyone who sold a few household items online or split expenses through a payment app can breathe easier this tax season. The reporting threshold that...
Paper Social Security checks are ending this year, with holdouts moved to direct deposit or a prepaid card
The mailed Social Security check, a fixture of American retirement for generations, is disappearing this year. The Social Security Administration is finishing a move to...
Social Security now lets you repay an overpayment online through Pay.gov
Social Security has added an online way to repay a benefit overpayment, letting affected recipients settle the balance electronically through the federal Pay.gov system instead...
Medicare’s 2027 price cuts also reach the cancer drugs Ibrance and Xtandi
Four cancer drugs sit inside the same 2027 Medicare price cuts that lowered the cost of a common inhaler, and two of them treat conditions...