In this Episode of the Secure Your Retirement Podcast, Radon and Murs discuss why the beginning of the year is one of the most important times for smart tax decisions and how early planning can prevent costly mistakes later. With the help of their Director of Financial Planning and Tax Strategy, Taylor Wolverton, they walk through practical smart tax strategies designed to support effective tax planning in retirement and help you stay ahead with a proactive tax planning checklist. From contribution rules to charitable strategies, this episode focuses on building a strong foundation for retirement tax planning that supports long-term confidence.

Listen in to learn about key decisions that impact your ability to plan for retirement, reduce unnecessary taxes, and ultimately secure your retirement. Whether you are still working, transitioning into Retirement, or already planning retirement income, these insights can help you align your retirement checklist with current rules, deadlines, and opportunities—so you can focus on retiring comfortably without last-minute surprises.

In this episode, find out:

• How the 401k catch up rule works, including 401k catch up contributions and updated 2026 401k contribution limits
• Why the IRA contribution deadline matters and how a Roth IRA contribution can still be made after year-end
• How qualified charitable distribution strategies work, including important QCD rules
• When it may make sense to donate stock to charity versus giving cash and how this affects your charitable deduction
• How income choices impact a long-term Roth conversion strategy and overall retirement tax planning

Tweetable Quotes:

• “The beginning of the year is where smart tax planning really starts—what you do now determines how much flexibility you’ll have later.” — Radon Stancil
• “Tax planning in retirement isn’t just about deductions; it’s about choosing the right accounts at the right time.” — Murs Tariq

Understanding how the standard deduction, charitable strategies, and income planning work together is a critical part of Retirement Planning. From managing distributions to timing conversions, early awareness helps avoid mistakes that can limit your ability to secure your retirement and maintain tax efficiency throughout the year.

Resources:

If you are in or nearing retirement and you want to gain clarity on what questions you should be asking, learn what the biggest retirement myths are, and identify what you can do to achieve peace of mind for your retirement, get started today by requesting our complimentary video course, Four Steps to Secure Your Retirement!

To access the course, simply visit POMWealth.net/podcast.

Here’s the full transcript:

Welcome everyone to secure your retirement podcast. Excited to have you here today.

Taylor is right here in Raleigh. So that’s exciting. And I thank you for

coming on the podcast. Yeah, happy to be here. And so, whenever we have a

chance to have Taylor on the podcast, as you know, we always use the scenario of

trying to talk about taxes and try to look at things. A lot of times we’re talking

about taxes, though, kind of like at the end of the year, like what do we want to

do before we get, you know, before the December 31st? And I think

I think this is going to be a really good episode. I think we’re going to hit a

few different topics. And Taylor’s going to be our tax guru on this and kind of

walk us through. So, I think the first thing is talking about 401Ks. There’s

different things that we can do within our 401Ks as far as the amounts that we can

do. If we’re of a certain age, we can actually do catch up. So, I know you said

you’ve been getting quite a few calls, Taylor, on this topic. So can your kind of

walk us through some of those things that people are asking about. Right. Yeah, one

thing that’s actually new starting in 26 is how catch -up contributions for 401Ks are

treated for some people. So, the standard 401k maximum contribution in 2026 is $24

,500. However, if you made more than $150 ,000 in wages last year in 2025,

then your catch -up contributions are going to be treated differently. So, if you’re

over the age of 50, you are eligible to contribute another $8 ,000 in your 401k in

addition to the standard. So, your total 401k maximum is $32 ,500. But like I said,

if you made more than $150,000 in wages last year, that $8 ,000 catch up,

if that is, I’m going to pay tax on those dollars no matter what. And so, if I

put the money over in there, use the catch up. I am losing a little bit of a

benefit that I had last year. Right. But if I put the money in or I don’t put

the money in, I’m still paying taxes on it. So at least if I get it into the

Roth category, anything I make up and above that is going, I mean, whatever earnings

I get are going to grow tax free. Yes. That’s right. Yeah. So, something I guess

for everybody to think about. I know when I first got that notice myself, I was a

little upset about that and like, man, that’s kind of crappy. But then just

rationalizing on it, I guess it makes sense because otherwise I’m, you know, still

going to pay the taxes. Okay. Now there’s, okay. One last thing on that too,

actually. One other thing just to make note of if you’re between the ages of 60

and 63 by the end of this year, your catch-up amount is actually higher. You can

do the catch -up of $11,250. So, your total 401k with the base or the standard 24

,500, plus your catch -up, your maximum is going to be 35 ,750. But that is only for

ages 60 to 63. So just one other thing to be aware of if you are in that age

category this year, you can contribute even more. Yeah. So, I guess just thinking

about that, what you would want to do is contact your payroll folks at your work

and say, hey, I want to up myself to make sure that I’m getting the max that I

can put in there if I so choose to do so. Yes. Yeah, very good. All right. So, we

talk about this all the time. I always tell people you’ve got to make decisions

before December 31st. If you don’t make the decision before December 31st, you’re

really kind of dealing with what the outcome is of whatever you did in that year.

But there are a couple of things that we can do after December 31st that will

actually, help us for the prior year. So, if I am sitting here into 2026, I know

there’s a thing there too that I can do. So can you share those with us. Yes, one

thing I did want to make note of you can still contribute to your traditional IRA

or your Roth IRA for the year 2025 up until April 15th or the tax filing deadline,

26. So, if you want to contribute to those accounts for 2025, you do still have

time to be able to do that.

necessarily be the right thing to do if you don’t if you’re not charitably inclined

however, if I do give to a charity there’s things i need to know about charitable

giving and I think there’s a few points that you’ve got planned to talk to us

about that on this one uh Taylor yes, I’ll start with the most straightforward one

which is if you are eligible for qualified charitable distributions or QCDs,

which to be eligible, you need to be over the age of 70 and a half. So, if you’re

turning 70 and a half this year or you’re already over the age of 70 and a half

and you are charitably inclined, then the most tax -efficient way for you to donate

is through those QCDs or the qualified charitable distributions, which means you make

donations directly out of your traditional IRA. And any donation that you make is

completely tax -free. if you are also RMDAH or required minimum distribution.

you kind of have that on autopilot,

you might want to think about that, especially if this year, you’re turning 70 and a

half, because you might want to rethink that and say, let me turn that off and

then I could just do a lump sum distribution out of my IRA because it has to go

directly from your IRA. You cannot receive the money from your IRA and then go give

it to the charity. It has to be written to the charity out of your IRA for it to

qualify as a qualified charitable distribution. So just think about that. That’s why

I was saying when we were talking to Taylor, I was like, there’s things we might

want to remind people because we’re sitting here in the beginning of the year. And

if I have things on auto pay, I might want to go fix that, especially when it

comes to this idea of the QCD. Exactly. Yeah, plan it out from the beginning of

the year. If you want to donate, I’m just making up a random example, $5 ,000 and

you donate it in cash. And then we have a conversation later and you realize, oh,

I am QCD eligible. I want to do that method. Then if you’ve already made the

donations, it’s already too late. So, it is something that is ideal to think about

from the start of the year. So, you can choose the best method rather than have the

hindsight to realize, oh, I should have done it a different way. Yeah. Any other

things on charitable contributions? Yes. In that kind of same vein,

if you’re not 70 and a half, if you’re below that age, then another strategy to

consider is donating stock. That’s another thing to think about from the beginning of

the year. If you know you’re going to donate whatever amount you have on your mind,

whatever your goal or preferences, then think about donating stock. If you have that

available to you, the advantage to donating stock, especially appreciated stock is

what I’m referring to specifically. If you donate appreciated stock, then you can

avoid the capital gains tax that you otherwise would pay by donating.

especially if you are wanting to do a Roth conversion for income this year.

If you have cash available, that’s the best to spend, as opposed to taking

distributions out of your traditional IRA to spend that instead. So, if you have cash

available, that’s the best place to go for income first. And then I would say as

well, if you have brokerage accounts, then that’s also ideal for income planning

because that’s treated differently for tax purposes as opposed to taking distributions

from your traditional IRA. And those are conversations we’re having with people and

even just amongst our team members constantly throughout the year, like, oh, this

person needs to buy a car, which account should we take it out of what’s most tax

efficient? So, it’s even like an ongoing conversation amongst us that we’re revisiting

every single time income does need to come out. Yeah, that’s a big one. I’ve had

people before where I’m going to go buy a car and then you’d go take Thank you.

about how we deal with these types of things if my only option is pulling money

from an IRA so that we can keep our income low. That’s what we’re trying to do

for the conversion. We’re not going to be able to do it forever, but for the

conversion years. Yeah. And kind of same thing, same thought process with selling

stock in general. If you are going to sell stock, be aware of what that realized

gain will be when you sell because a gain is what gets reported on your tax return

as income. So, I’m not saying if you want to do a Roth conversion, don’t sell any

stock at all. That might not be possible. There are other goals and other

considerations that you could still be wanting to sell the stock for, but at least

have an awareness of what that’s going to do and the consequences that that’s going

to have on Roth conversion conversations later on in the year. Excellent. Okay,

I think our final thing that we’re going to chat about is our paying of taxes and

making sure that we do that in a timely fashion. So, if you want to walk us

through our estimated tax payments. Yes. So, for, well,

and for paying taxes in general, you can have tax automatically withheld from your

income sources, like your social security, like your pension, like your wages, IRA

distributions, things like that. Or and or you can pay your tax online through

estimated tax payments. And those payments are due quarterly. The IRS does require

that you pay your tax as you receive income throughout the year. So, they do have

due dates for when you need to make those estimated tax payments. Again, not

everyone even needs to make estimated tax payments, but if that is your strategy for

this year, the due dates in 2026, the first quarter is due April 15th. The second

quarter is due June 15th. The third quarter is due September 15th. And then the

last quarter for…

Well, first let me say, if you take the standard deduction and you donate cash,

you will actually be eligible for an additional deduction on top of your standard

deduction for up to $1 ,000 in charitable donations if you’re single or $2 ,000 if

you file jointly. So that’s brand new for 2026. That’s the first time that we will

see that go into effect. But just another thing to think you know,

standard versus itemizing and charitable donations. Historically, when we haven’t seen

a charitable benefit from taking the standard deduction, now that is actually going

to be a possibility. So that will only benefit people in that situation. Well,

excellent. Well, thank you so much, again, Taylor, for hopping on and kind of

walking us through this information. As I always like to remind you, we do have a

written blog on this same topic. We went through a lot of numbers, sent a lot of

reminders. So, you can go to pomwealth.net, go to the blog page, and you’ll see a

whole article written on this particular topic as well. And it’ll be a nice resource

that you can read through just to remember all these different points. But as

always, we certainly do appreciate you listening today. We look forward to talking to you again next Monday.