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
Working one more year can replace a zero in Social Security’s 35-year formula.
Social Security bases a worker’s benefit on 35 years of earnings, and anyone who worked fewer than 35 years has zeros folded into that average....
Delaying Social Security past full retirement age adds about 8% a year until 70.
Waiting to claim Social Security is one of the few retirement decisions that comes with a guaranteed, government-set raise. For each year a worker holds...
Social Security still taxes benefits once combined income tops $25,000 single or $32,000 per couple, thresholds frozen since 1984.
Retirement income that once escaped federal tax now routinely lands part of a Social Security check on a 1040. The trigger is a figure the...
Rolling a 401(k) straight into an IRA avoids the automatic 20% withholding.
A worker who cashes a 401(k) into a personal check rather than moving it directly to a new account loses 20% of the balance to...
401(k) hardship withdrawals hit a record 6% of savers in 2025, most to head off a foreclosure or eviction.
Six percent of workers enrolled in Vanguard 401(k) plans pulled a hardship withdrawal in 2025, the highest share the firm has ever recorded and up...
Twenty-five health systems have now dropped Medicare Advantage for 2026, and about 2.9 million seniors may be forced to switch.
The count of hospital networks backing out of Medicare Advantage keeps climbing. A growing roster of large systems has now cut ties with or scaled...
Who pays more for Medicare drug coverage in 2027? Up to 45% of enrollees, as a federal premium subsidy ends.
Roughly 45% of seniors enrolled in standalone Medicare drug plans could watch their monthly premium climb by more than $10 in 2027, the direct result...
Non-itemizers can deduct up to $1,000 in cash gifts, or $2,000 jointly, starting in 2026
A new federal deduction gives charitable donors who claim the standard deduction a tax benefit that used to be largely reserved for itemizers. Starting with...
Many inherited IRAs must be emptied within 10 years, even when annual withdrawals also apply
“Ten-year rule” sounds like permission to wait, but for many inherited IRAs it describes only the outside boundary. A nonspouse beneficiary may have to empty...
Roth 401(k) owners no longer face lifetime required minimum distributions
Roth money inside a workplace plan no longer comes with an age-driven withdrawal order for the original owner. That change gives a Roth 401(k) something...
A missed required minimum distribution can trigger a 25% tax, reduced to 10% after a timely correction
The excise tax on an RMD failure is calculated on the missing distribution, not on the entire retirement account, and current law rewards a correction...
Delaying a first required minimum distribution can force two taxable withdrawals into one year
The first required minimum distribution comes with a one-time April 1 extension, but using it does not move the next December 31 deadline. That overlap...
IRA contribution limits rose to $7,500 for 2026, plus a $1,100 catch-up after 50
The 2026 IRA increase creates $8,600 of contribution room for someone at least 50 by year-end, but that room is shared across traditional and Roth...
Workers ages 60 to 63 can make an $11,250 retirement-plan catch-up contribution in 2026
A four-year window now allows many workplace-plan participants to add $11,250 beyond the regular 2026 deferral limit, creating the largest catch-up just before traditional retirement...
Interest on a qualifying new car loan can create a federal deduction up to $10,000
Federal law has reopened a deduction for personal vehicle interest, but only for a narrowly defined loan on a newly purchased, U.S.-assembled vehicle. The annual...
Qualified overtime can unlock a $12,500 deduction, or $25,000 for joint filers
The new overtime deduction is built around a surprisingly small slice of an overtime paycheck: the premium required by the Fair Labor Standards Act, not...
Workers can deduct up to $25,000 in qualified tips on 2026 federal returns
A new federal deduction can remove as much as $25,000 of qualifying tip income from taxable income for 2026, but it does not make every...
The 2026 standard deduction climbed to $16,100 single and $32,200 married filing jointly
The basic federal deduction rises again for 2026, sheltering a larger slice of income before tax rates apply. The change does not create a matching...
The IRS is automatically testing penalty relief for some taxpayers with clean filing histories
The IRS is moving a common penalty waiver from a taxpayer request to the return-processing system, using prior compliance as the eligibility test. The new...
Medicare’s negotiated prices for 15 more drugs, including Ozempic, start January 1, 2027
Medicare has fixed a new government price for a second group of major prescription drugs, but the household consequence remains one plan year away. The...