Taxes in Retirement

No — the 2025 law created a temporary $6,000-per-person deduction for taxpayers 65 and older ($12,000 for a qualifying couple, tax years 2025 through 2028, phasing out above $75,000/$150,000 of modified AGI). The provisional-income formula that decides how much of a benefit is taxable is unchanged. For many retired couples the deduction lowers taxable income enough that the federal bill reaches zero anyway — but the mechanism is a deduction, not an exemption.

For 2026, long-term gains are taxed at 0 percent as long as taxable income — including the gain itself — stays under $98,900 for a married couple filing jointly ($49,450 single). Ordinary income stacks first and gains stack on top, so only the gain that fits under the line rides at 0. The gain still raises AGI, which Social Security taxation and Medicare IRMAA key on.

The taxable share of a Social Security benefit is set by provisional income, tested against thresholds fixed since 1984 ($32,000 and $44,000 for a married couple). In the zone above the upper threshold, each additional dollar of IRA income can drag up to $0.85 of benefits into the taxable column with it — so $1 withdrawn creates up to $1.85 of taxable income, turning a nominal 12 percent bracket into an effective rate of about 22 percent.

Yes. Taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth dollars are taxed differently, and the sequence you draw them in decides which brackets fill, how much of Social Security becomes taxable, and what Medicare premiums key on two years later. The same spending can produce meaningfully different lifetime tax bills depending on the order.

A QCD sends money directly from an IRA to a qualified charity. It counts toward the year's required minimum distribution yet is excluded from taxable income entirely — up to $111,000 per person in 2026. Eligibility begins at age 70½, and the transfer must go custodian-to-charity; a check made out to you does not qualify.