Recently retired in Colorado

[EasyLiving]

Hi, I'm 64yo and retired in June 2017. Been lurking in the forum for a couple of months and have been impressed with the quality of some of the discussions. Time to jump in.

Does anyone know if SS re-evaluates your tax returns on a yearly basis if you've been slapped with a high income adjustment to your Medicare Part B premium. Has anyone successfully contested the high income adjustment?

 

[Golden sunsets]

Hi, I'm 64yo and retired in June 2017. Been lurking in the forum for a couple of months and have been impressed with the quality of some of the discussions. Time to jump in.

Does anyone know if SS re-evaluates your tax returns on a yearly basis if you've been slapped with a high income adjustment to your Medicare Part B premium. Has anyone successfully contested the high income adjustment?

Yes they do. SS looks at your MAGI for the year end last known to determine your IRMA for the next year. For example SS will look at your tax return for 2016 to determine your 2018 Medicare premiums. However if your circumstances have changed, such as retirement in mid 2017 you can file a form with SS detailing this life changing event (LCE) with an estimate of your income for the coming year(2018) and SS will review and change your premium, assuming your new income places you in a lower or no IRMA bracket. In your case seeing that you are not yet 65 and not yet on Medicare you would wait to do this until you receive your statement from SSA identifying your premium before filing the form. If you turn 65 before year end 2017 and start IRMA extra premiums before year end, you can also file the same form for the current year, before year end if your anticipated total income for 2017 drops your Income below the IRMA threshold and SS will return your excess premiums to you. I did this the year I sold my business and received a check for over 2 thousand dollars for my and DH's IRMA payments for that year. You do have to file that form before year end though. I believe the form is SSA-44. More detailed info can be found here: https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nSf/lnx/0601120005


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[pjm-7]

Welcome to Colorado.

 

[EasyLiving]

Yes they do. SS looks at your MAGI for the year end last known to determine your IRMA for the next year. For example SS will look at your tax return for 2016 to determine your 2018 Medicare premiums. However if your circumstances have changed, such as retirement in mid 2017 you can file a form with SS detailing this life changing event (LCE) with an estimate of your income for the coming year(2018) and SS will review and change your premium, assuming your new income places you in a lower or no IRMA bracket. In your case seeing that you are not yet 65 and not yet on Medicare you would wait to do this until you receive your statement from SSA identifying your premium before filing the form. If you turn 65 before year end 2017 and start IRMA extra premiums before year end, you can also file the same form for the current year, before year end if your anticipated total income for 2017 drops your Income below the IRMA threshold and SS will return your excess premiums to you. I did this the year I sold my business and received a check for over 2 thousand dollars for my and DH's IRMA payments for that year. You do have to file that form before year end though. I believe the form is SSA-44. More detailed info can be found here: https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nSf/lnx/0601120005


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

Thanks for the great information!

 

[SamuelLigert]

Welcome to the forum! Cheers!