IRMAA hits retirees two years after property sale

For retirees who booked a large capital gain in 2024, the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount is now adding thousands of dollars to their Part B and Part D Medicare premiums.

The surcharge stems from Medicare's two-year lookback rule, which pulls modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) from a prior tax return to calculate current-year costs.

A married couple filing jointly with a $210,000 taxable gain layered on top of roughly $130,000 in other retirement income could face combined surcharges exceeding $5,600 for the year, 24/7 Wall St. reported.

The surcharge applies even though the gain was a one-time event, because Medicare treats it the same as recurring income.

The Social Security Administration uses MAGI from the tax return filed two years prior to set surcharge levels.

Your 2024 return, filed in early 2025, determines the premiums you pay throughout 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services confirmed.

Mike McCracken, president and founder of Wealth Guide Financial, told Fortune that Medicare's two-year lookback means a property sale at 64 can trigger higher premiums at 66, catching retirees who did not run the numbers before closing.

You see, Medicare lo

Fuente original: Yahoo Finance (https://finance.yahoo.com/healthcare/articles/irmaa-hits-retirees-two-years-181700890.html)