End Of Year Issues to Consider in Retirement

Can you believe that we’re close to the end of 2023 already? Before the year wraps up, it’s a good idea to address end-of-year items and work your way through a checklist of sorts. You can also reference this list in 2024, so if you’re seeing this post after the end of the year, it’s still going to be relevant to you.

We’re going to walk you through:

1. Things to do before the end of 2023
2. Things to do for a good start of 2024

Note: We do have an actual checklist that you can work through. If you want to get that checklist, feel free to schedule a call with us or send us an email.

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End-of-Year Issues to Handle Before 2023

You’ll want to work on your assets and debt issues. First, look at your unrealized investment losses. For example, perhaps you’re holding onto Apple stock and it’s a loss right now. You can sell the stock as a loss and leverage what is known as tax loss harvesting.

You can use these losses to:

• Offset gains
• Reduce your ordinary income by up to $3,000 a year
• Losses beyond $3,000 will carry forward to offset income in future years

If you have capital gains, you can erase some of these gains by using tax loss harvesting. You can sell the stock and buy it back after a period of time. 

Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)

RMDs are something we talk a lot about on our podcast, and we have quite a few articles on the topic that you can review:

• Required Minimum Distributions – Monthly, Quarterly or Annually?
• How Do Required Minimum Distributions and QCDs Work?

That being said, you’ll want to do a few things in terms of retirement planning with your RMDs. Based on your age, typically, if you’re in your early 70s, you’ll want to take your distribution before the end of the year.

Not sure if you need to take an RMD?

Discuss it with your financial advisor because distribution ages will vary based on when you were born. 

If you inherited an IRA or 401(k), you automatically have RMDs that you need to consider. Anyone who recently inherited one of these accounts will need to be sure that the account is empty within 10 years. You will need to consider whether (or not) you want to take an RMD on these accounts before the end of the year.

Tax Planning

The end of the year signals a lot of tax planning items that you’ll need to check off your list. A few of the most important things to consider are:

Do you plan on your income increasing significantly in the next year?

You can consider maximizing your Roth contributions going into the end of the year. If you’re over the age of 50, Roth IRA contributions max out at $7,500, and the Roth 401(k) maxes out at $30,000 in 2023 and will go up in 2024.

If you’re 59 1/2 or older, you can consider accelerating your IRA withdrawals since you’re in a lower tax bracket this year. You may also want to consider converting some of this money into a Roth account to leverage tax-free growth.

The annual deadline for Roth conversions is December 31st, however, you should get started on these before the beginning of December to give plenty of time for the process to be completed in your intended year.

Threshold Tax Brackets

Your adjusted gross income can push you into a higher tax bracket or impact your Medicare surcharges. Going back to tax loss harvesting, you may be able to leverage these losses to keep charges lower or avoid going into a higher tax bracket.

You need to be aware of your potential adjusted gross income.

If you’re reading this, reach out to your financial advisor and:

• Ask what your adjusted gross income may be
• Plan ahead, because your income amount now impacts your surcharges in the future

Medicare IRMAA surcharges will certainly impact your budget because you’re required to pay more for Medicare if surcharges are higher.

Are you charitably inclined?

If you like to donate to charity, it’s also an opportunity to help offset your tax burden. A lot of unique strategies can be employed in this realm. People who give money to charity can leverage:

• Qualified charitable distribution, for anyone who is over 70 1/2. You can use one of these distributions to lower your tax burden. For example, if you take money from your IRA and have the check written straight to an approved 501(c)(3) charity so that it is never deposited to your bank account, the donated amount will not be reported as taxable income to you.
• Anyone who reaches the age of RMDs (70 ½ or older) can also use this strategy. For example, if your RMD is $20,000, you can funnel $10,000 to charity using the same method above and only have $10,000 of your RMD be taxable.
• Bunching contributions or setting up a donor-advised fund is also an option. For example, if you donate $10,000 a year to charity, it’s possible that you may not exceed the standard deduction and therefore, will not receive any tax benefit for your $10,000 donation. So instead, you can combine multiple years of donations together. If you were to combine 3 years of donating $10,000 a year into a one-time donation of $30,000, you can deduct the entire $30,000 in the year the donation occurs. This would give you a greater chance of exceeding the standard deduction and receiving a greater tax benefit by doing so.

Did you in 2023 or will you in 2024 receive a windfall?

If you receive a windfall, such as inheritance, lump sum payment, stocks, Roth conversion or some other major influx of money, you may need to make an estimated tax payment. If you don’t make one of these payments, the IRS can assess a penalty against you.

An estimated tax payment alleviates the penalty because if you’re within a certain percentage of what you owe, the IRS will be satisfied, and you can make any remaining payments at the time your taxes are filed.

A tax or financial advisor can help you with these estimated taxes.

Have there been any changes to your marital status?

If you got married or divorced, or your spouse passed on, it can have an impact on your taxes. Married filing single and married filing jointly are two very different things. Consulting with a tax professional about your situation can help you decide on how to handle your filing status this year.

You Have a Little Extra Money in the Bank

If you’ve had a good year and have made more money than expected, you may want to save some money. One thing that’s common is to put money into a Health Savings Account (HSA) if you are on a high-deductible health insurance plan.

For 2023, you’ll be able to put money into an HSA up to:

• $3,850 if you’re single
• $7,750 if you have a family health insurance plan
• $1,000 extra if you’re over 55

These numbers will change in 2024.

The beauty of an HSA is that you can let the money in the account grow tax-deferred and then use the money for your medical needs. If you leave the money in the account until you’re 65, it can also act as a retirement fund.

401(k)

If you didn’t max out your 401(k), you can put up to $22,500 in the account in 2023 and an extra $7,500 if you’re over 50.

Roth IRA

If you’re eligible, you can put money into a Roth account. You can pull the money out of this account if you need it in the future.

529 Account

If you have kids or grandchildren and want to fund their college education, you can put money into a 529 account for them. You can fund this account with a gift exclusion of $17,000. There’s also a strategy to get up to $85,000 out of your estate and into one of these accounts, but you should work with a tax professional on this strategy.

Insurance

If you met your deductible for your insurance this year, try to get any of your medical needs met now because you won’t be paying for it. Working to get these procedures done now before you must pay your deductible again is an efficient means of using your insurance.

Depending on when you read this, don’t forget that open enrollment takes place in November and December.

Evaluate your Medicare and Supplement programs because there may be advantages to switching.

Estate Planning

Whether it’s the beginning or end of the year, you’ll want to focus on your estate plan. Review all your beneficiaries, including on your:

• 401(k)
• IRA
• Brokerage account
• Savings account

Of course, this list isn’t exhaustive, but we’ve covered some main points that are really important going into the final weeks of the year.

Click here to request a checklist with all these key items.