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.
Trimming a Large Stock Gain in 2026? California Taxes It Like Salary, and December 31 Sets the Year
How a 2026 stock sale is taxed federally and in California, why the trade date sets the year, and when splitting a gain across December 31 lowers the tax.
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.
Inherited an IRA Since 2020? Many Beneficiaries Now Owe a Withdrawal Every Year
The 10-year rule has a second half. If the original owner had already started RMDs, years one through nine aren't optional, and taking only the minimum can push most of the tax bill into year ten.
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.
Your Children May Not Inherit Your Property Tax Bill. California Changed the Rule in 2021.
Plans written before 2021 assumed the family home passed to children with its old tax bill. Now it depends on whether a child moves in, and a gift can cost more than it saves.
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.