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Old 04-15-2016, 07:44 PM
 
Location: Baltimore, MD
5,291 posts, read 5,959,897 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107 View Post
YES !

much to our surprise the examiner at social security/ medicare ruled in our favor and is rolling back marilyns premium by 300 a month .

we won , but not on the grounds i was making for our case .

i was arguing that they should not use 2014 tax returns but instead go by 2015 .since we had a one time sale of an asset and no one was on medicare yet or retired .

the examiner shot that down because they have very strict rules on asset sales as far as what makes for a life changing event and we didn't qualify .

but she said that because we stopped work in 2015 and saw such a drastic income cut from 2014 that it could be considered a life changing event and ruled in our favor . she reduced us by almost 300 a month and will give us back the almost 900 we already over paid.

i did not think we had a chance winning this so i was pleasantly surprised .

that is the advantage of doing some planning , we set a side 2 years of withdrawals in cash prior to retiring so it generated very little taxable income in comparison for 2015 swaying their decision .
I always enjoyed presenting a case to a SS Hearing Examiner. The Examiner is not an ALJ, the proceedings are far more informal and I found the Examiners to be "down to earth". I loved that even though she ruled against your argument she was able and willing to find in your favor on another ground. Congrats!
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Old 04-15-2016, 07:57 PM
 
105,805 posts, read 107,776,949 times
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I agree about the examiner, she could have said that is the rules and the sale does not qualify to have the premiums changed and that would have been it.

But she said she sees our point and understands why we are trying to appeal it so lets see what i can do.

She was as helpful to us as could be and went beyond our expectations
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Old 04-15-2016, 10:13 PM
 
Location: Close to an earthquake
888 posts, read 886,097 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107 View Post
they automatically just go back two years and bingo , new bill at increased premium appears in january . there is nothing you show them prior to that , no request for info , nothing . .

be careful selling your home . if you have a home for decades you may have gains that exceed the exclusion limit , especially if you had a spouse die and now file single .

those gains can bite you and the examiner said that ss makes no exceptions because you sold your house and the gains triggered premium increases so plan accordingly .
Depending how title to the home is held, there might be a step up in basis (tax cost) upon the death of a spouse and that would greatly reduce the taxable gain on the sale of it even with only a $250,00 max exclusion for a single widow(er).
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Old 04-15-2016, 11:55 PM
 
Location: Gulf Coast
1,458 posts, read 1,160,687 times
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Can someone give me a link to the rules of all this stuff, or is there a calculator somewhere? We have already told our tenant to look for another place to live, we'll be selling our rental house in October (or at least putting it on the market). We just sold 2 investment properties but that didn't result in a lot of profit, $1-2 thousand; and we just had another long-term project come through that is generating something in this year. We are already on Medicare and these things are all a result of a life time of saving, working, waiting for the economy to recover, etc., and we can't afford the kind of increase you guys are talking about.

mathjak, how long were those high medicare costs going to last?
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Old 04-16-2016, 01:01 AM
 
10,226 posts, read 7,500,578 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107 View Post
live and learn , to bad we usually end up learning after the fact . like locking the barn after the horse runs away . never did i ever consider that sale in 2014 would trigger a huge penalty 2 years later in retirement , who knew , i knew nothing about medicare yet , didn't have to . wrong !


.. if i was on medicare too that would have been almost a 600 per month increase on top of the old premium , more then 9k a year for the two of us for just medicare premiums that cost a couple 208 a month or 2500 bucks a year
I thought Medicare was pretty much the same rate for everyone in a geographic area. It charges based on income? I've never heard of that.
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Old 04-16-2016, 02:39 AM
 
10,103 posts, read 19,310,501 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107 View Post
389.80 per month per person is the max. they go by income two years back . 2 years ago we were both working and our partners sold off the lease rights we held on the central park south building . that was enough to max us out .

max is 389.50 per person .

Thanks for the information!


We plan to retire in 2-3 years. This year we will sell some major assets, which will probably be part of our GI for this year, 2016, so we have to time this carefully! I didn't even know that would be an issue!
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Old 04-16-2016, 03:19 AM
 
105,805 posts, read 107,776,949 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat Answers View Post
Can someone give me a link to the rules of all this stuff, or is there a calculator somewhere? We have already told our tenant to look for another place to live, we'll be selling our rental house in October (or at least putting it on the market). We just sold 2 investment properties but that didn't result in a lot of profit, $1-2 thousand; and we just had another long-term project come through that is generating something in this year. We are already on Medicare and these things are all a result of a life time of saving, working, waiting for the economy to recover, etc., and we can't afford the kind of increase you guys are talking about.

mathjak, how long were those high medicare costs going to last?
1 year , then they look at the next years income
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Old 04-16-2016, 03:27 AM
 
105,805 posts, read 107,776,949 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MaryleeII View Post
Thanks for the information!


We plan to retire in 2-3 years. This year we will sell some major assets, which will probably be part of our GI for this year, 2016, so we have to time this carefully! I didn't even know that would be an issue!
it is going to be an even bigger issue . in 2018 there are more brackets in premiums going in to effect so 2016 income will be used .

for a couple you don't get a jump up until 170k as of now or 85k for a single but that will change .

we don't know the amounts in dollars but since medicare is mostly user funded you will be responsible for a greater share of the payments at lower incomes .

the range of 133k to 160k and 160-214k will get increased . while they may not be typical yearly incomes ranges for most folks they can be easily hit with capital gain sales .

.
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Old 04-16-2016, 03:39 AM
 
105,805 posts, read 107,776,949 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bpollen View Post
I thought Medicare was pretty much the same rate for everyone in a geographic area. It charges based on income? I've never heard of that.
as you learn more and more about retiring there are loads of things you will find you don't know . in fact i will go on record saying ,like most of us find , what we thought and how things are can be very different . i have switched my views on certain things r as i learned that whatever i thought had ramifications , downsides or benefits elsewhere only i didn't know enough to realize it , i thought filing ss early was a good thing , i have found for us it is not as an example .

yes medicare is income linked .

if you were collecting ss then you still pay the old 104.50 rate as a base rate up to 170k for a couple or 85k for a single since there was no cola's .

they bumped my wife from 104.50 to 389.80 because of our 2014 joint return and that is what we appealed and won .

if your 2014 income was :


Last edited by mathjak107; 04-16-2016 at 04:55 AM..
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Old 04-16-2016, 07:30 AM
 
24,510 posts, read 18,002,417 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107 View Post
but she said that because we stopped work in 2015 and saw such a drastic income cut from 2014 that it could be considered a life changing event and ruled in our favor .
That is extremely useful information. I expect to see a dramatic reduction in income the day I stop working. I was concerned that since I'm a 5%er filing single, I'd get slaughtered on Medicare premiums for a couple of years. It's another piece of the puzzle in trying to decide if I'm going to try to shift IRA/401(k) money to a Roth IRA once I stop working.
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