Converting to a Roth After a Market Drop in 2026: The Tax Is Based on the Day the Shares Move
A 2026 Roth IRA conversion is taxed federally and in California on the value of what moves that day. How a market drop changes the math before December 31.
California Can't Tax Your IRA After You Move. It Can Still Tax the House You Sold.
California can't tax IRA or pension withdrawals you take after moving away. It can still tax a California home sale, at a rate set by all your income, including the IRA money it can't touch.
Retiring Can Lower Your Medicare Premium. Form SSA-44 Is How You Tell Social Security.
Retired in 2026? Form SSA-44 lets you ask Social Security to base Medicare's IRMAA surcharge on lower current income. A federal rule, California included.
Your 2026 Tax Return Sets Your 2028 Medicare Premium
Medicare prices its premiums from a tax return filed two years earlier, so the income you recognize this year sets what you pay in 2028, and December 31 closes it.
California Doesn't Tax Social Security. That Changes What Waiting Until 70 Is Worth.
Social Security and IRA withdrawals look interchangeable in a break-even calculation. California taxes one of them and not the other, and that changes what delaying a claim buys.
The IRS Gives New Retirees an Extra Three Months on Their First RMD. Many Regret Taking It.
Turning 73 this year? The IRS lets you delay your first RMD to April — but for most people, waiting stacks two distributions into one tax year.
The $500,000 Home-Sale Exclusion Hasn't Changed Since 1997. Your California House Has.
The exclusion was set in 1997 and never indexed. For a home bought decades ago on the California coast, it now covers a fraction of the gain — and the deed decides the rest.
When One Spouse Dies, the Tax Brackets Cut in Half. The Income Rarely Does.
A surviving spouse files single the year after a death. In 2026 that means half the brackets and half the standard deduction — on income that rarely falls by half. California adds two wrinkles.
The WEP Repeal Gave You a Bigger Social Security Check. Five Things It Quietly Changed.
The retroactive payment was reported in the year it arrived, and that return is the one Medicare will read in 2027. Four more consequences nobody was mailed a notice about.
The Company Stock in Your 401(k) Gets One Tax Election. The Rollover Ends It.
Appreciated company stock in a 401(k) qualifies for a one-time federal tax election. Rolling the shares into an IRA ends it permanently, and most rollover paperwork never mentions it.
You Didn't Change How You Give. In 2026, the Tax Code Quietly Made Part of It Nondeductible.
A new 0.5% floor now sits under every charitable deduction, and top-bracket donors lost value too. Here's who it hits — and the two moves, including one Wall Street won't mention, that put you back in control.
Trump Accounts Are Open — But the Rules Keep Changing. What Families Need to Know Now.
Trump accounts launched two weeks ago, and the rules are already shifting — including a surprise change to what can be contributed. Here's what's new, and why flexibility belongs in your family's plan.