The Ultimate Retirement Guide
Sixteen pages on the three places retirement taxes quietly cost people the most.
Free guide
- Josh Rendler, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional
- Partner at Define Financial
- Has helped more than 500 retirees
What’s inside
- The tax landscape
- Deductions and capital gains
- The Medicare surcharge that behaves like a cliff
- Managing the surcharge before it lands
- Qualified charitable distributions
- The rules that actually disqualify people
IRMAA is not a slope. One dollar over a threshold moves you to the next tier in full, for the entire year.
What’s inside
The 2026 brackets, and where the edges sit
Your marginal rate applies to your last dollar, not all of them. Where filling a bracket ends and jumping one begins.
The Medicare surcharge that behaves like a cliff
IRMAA is not a slope. A dollar over a threshold moves you up a tier for the whole year — and it’s set by a tax return from two years earlier, so the income you report this year decides what you pay two years from now.
When withdrawals stop being optional
Required distributions arrive whether you need the money or not. How a qualified charitable distribution can satisfy one without the income landing on your return.