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a couple of things , nightengale , because a lot of what you posted is no longer allowed for donna . .
donna missed the cut off so all she can ever get is her own benefit today because of deeming . but she can still get a spousal ADDER to her own benefit . she can't claim on any other benefit and leave hers alone to grow . that ship sailed for her . she can never elect to take spousal and let hers grow because she missed the january 1954 cut off for being at least 62 . that would be considered filing a restricted application which is now gone unless you were grandfathered in .
that applies to both current and ex spouses .
what they do now is take 1/2 her husbands fra amount or ex spouse , regardless of when he files and they subtract her fra amount . any difference is added to her own benefit. it can never exceed 1/2 the spouses fra amount ..
so lets say her husbands benefit is 2500 at fra . 1/2 i s 1250.00 ... lets say donna's fra amount is 1000 .... so 1250 less 1000 =250 ... so donna would get 250 added to her 1000 if she was fra .
if donna files early then they would just add that 250 to her early benefit and she would be getting less than 1/2 since she filed early . but the calculation for the adder is still based on both 1/2 the husbands fra amount minus donna's fra amount .
Ok, so basically all Donna can do is claim her own benefit whenever she chooses, and if her Ex. passes and his benefit is higher at that time than her's is at that time then and only then can she jump to that higher survivor benefit ?
as far as spousal donna can only get her own plus any spousal adder she may be entitled to .
survivor is all together different . survivor she can still take survivor from age 60 or later and let her own grow to 70 if she wants . it depends how that works out. survivor follows different rules and calculations
You can do a guesstimate, it’s not completely unknown. It’s called tax planning. It comes reasonably close to the actual tax situation. I do plan on my Excell spreadsheet and TurboTax so that’s why I do Roth conversion now. I will be in higher tax bracket for married filing, much worse in single filing.
What’s really unknown is whether you will be filing single or married in the future. Only God knows.
Medicare surcharge brackets (probably will have lower thresholds) and higher cost
IRA and Roths (eligibility and tax treatment)
RMD's based upon inherited spouse's IRA and larger tax liability due to single tax status
You can assume either way base on your political belief on the tax cut. At this moment I see it as reverting back to previous rate. So I’m aggressively converting up to 22%.
Medicare surcharge is well known. I put max limit at $165,000 before the amount jumps to the next band.
IRA and Roths tax treatment is known, what’s unknown about them is something I’m not aware. Care to clarify.
The last one I have mentioned in my post, because inherited IRA from a spouse can be folded into your own IRA.
Last edited by NewbieHere; 11-23-2018 at 02:17 PM..
a couple of things , nightengale , because a lot of what you posted is no longer allowed for donna . .
donna missed the cut off so all she can ever get is her own benefit today because of deeming . but she can still get a spousal ADDER to her own benefit . she can't claim on any other benefit and leave hers alone to grow . that ship sailed for her . she can never elect to take spousal and let hers grow because she missed the january 1954 cut off for being at least 62 . that would be considered filing a restricted application which is now gone unless you were grandfathered in .
that applies to both current and ex spouses .
what they do now is take 1/2 her husbands fra amount or ex spouse , regardless of when he files and they subtract her fra amount . any difference is added to her own benefit. it can never exceed 1/2 the spouses fra amount ..
so lets say her husbands benefit is 2500 at fra . 1/2 i s 1250.00 ... lets say donna's fra amount is 1000 .... so 1250 less 1000 =250 ... so donna would get 250 added to her 1000 if she was fra .
if donna files early then they would just add that 250 to her early benefit and she would be getting less than 1/2 since she filed early . but the calculation for the adder is still based on both 1/2 the husbands fra amount minus donna's fra amount .
My ex husband’s income was substantial while he was working, after 6 months, FICA taxes were no longer deducted. I retired at 59, and my benefit at 66 is $2258. I know my ex’s social security number and if I asked him, he would give me his current benefit amount. But I doubt that half of his is more than my full benefit.
You can do a guesstimate, it’s not completely unknown. It’s called tax planning. It comes reasonably close to the actual tax situation. I do plan on my Excell spreadsheet and TurboTax so that’s why I do Roth conversion now. I will be in higher tax bracket for married filing, much worse in single filing.
What’s really unknown is whether you will be filing single or married in the future. Only God knows.
Yes, upon becoming a widower at age 60, the loss of "Married Filing Joint" status put a big crimp in tax & retirement planning. Especially now with the $24000 Standard Deduction for MFJ.
Be nice if MFJ status could be permanent if married, say, 10 or 20 years, and not re-married. Expenses did not go down enough to get excited about. (Car insurance actually went up !!!)
keep in mind they extend out a bit the capital gain exclusion if you sell a house when you lose a spouse .
it is 500k in gains for a couple that is excluded if you sell your house but only 250k for a single if you lose a spouse . i think they let you use the married figure for 2 years or so after death .
by the same token it was not fair that married people got hammered tax wise by the marriage penalty .
you may have been in the 15% bracket , your husband may have been in the 15% bracket individually , they withheld enough taxes for each of you being in the 15% bracket , but now when combined and do your taxes your in the 25% marginal bracket and owe a boat load of money.
married couples both pay in fica yet only one ss check gets paid out if one dies . so there is unfairness on both sides of the fence
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