As we look ahead to 2026, a number of important updates are coming to Social Security, Medicare, taxes, and your retirement accounts.

In this email, I’m sharing key changes and highlighting what may matter most for you.

To help you turn these changes into smart tax moves, grab my freshly updated 2026 Tax Planning Cheat Sheet (PDF).

It includes the major updates from the One Big Beautiful Bill—new tax brackets, revised IRMAA surcharges, updated standard deductions, QCD limits, and more—on two clean, easy-to-read pages. 😊

As always, if you’d like help applying any of this to your situation, you can learn more about our retirement planning services here.

3 Tax Planning Strategies Most Investors Overlook ​Learn about three important tax moves to help you avoid overpaying the IRS—and how to quickly decide which ones actually make sense for your situation, so you’re making informed decisions instead of chasing random deductions. 🎙️ Listen now on ​Apple​, ​Spotify​, or ​YouTube​.

2026 Retirement Planning Updates & Changes

1.) Retirement Account Contribution Limits

If you plan to max out your workplace retirement plan and spread contributions evenly across 2026, update your contribution (deferral) percentage before your first paycheck in January.

This applies to employer plans like 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and 457(b)s.

For IRAs and, if applicable, HSAs, review your automatic contributions to ensure they reflect the new 2026 limits and align with your overall savings goals.

2.) Social Security Changes for 2026

After 2025’s modest 2.5% Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA), Social Security benefits are scheduled to increase by 2.8% in 2026.

That means a $3,000 monthly benefit would rise by about $84 per month.

Prices are still higher than they were a few years ago (and they’re not expected to fall) but this COLA reflects that the pace of inflation has been closer to its long-term historical range, despite what some headlines might suggest.

If you’re curious how this stacks up against history, you can review every COLA going back to 1975 here.

For those still working, the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security tax is also increasing from $176,100 in 2025 to $184,500 in 2026.

As a result, higher earners will see a bit more of their paycheck subject to Social Security withholding.

3.) Medicare Premiums to Increase

The standard Medicare Part B premium is scheduled to rise from $185.00 per month in 2025 to $202.90 in 2026—an increase of about $215 per year.

In addition, the first IRMAA (Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount) surcharge for higher-income retirees will now begin at:

• $109,000 of Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) for single filers
• $218,000 for married couples filing jointly

Remember, these 2026 income thresholds are based on your 2024 MAGI, since Medicare looks back two years when determining IRMAA brackets.

That means decisions you make today about withdrawals, Roth conversions, and realized gains can affect your Medicare premiums down the road.

4.) Annual Gift-Tax Exclusion

The annual gift-tax exclusion will remain at $19,000 per person, per year in 2026.

In practical terms:

• You can give $19,000 to any individual in 2026 without triggering federal gift tax or needing to use your lifetime exemption.
• If you’re married and choose to “split” gifts, you and your spouse can together give $38,000 to the same person in a single year on a tax-free basis.

These gifts can be a useful way to transfer wealth to children, grandchildren, or other loved ones during your lifetime.

They can help with things like a home down payment, education costs, or gradually moving assets out of your taxable estate in a thoughtful, intentional way.

5) Other 2026 Tax Highlights Worth Watching

To keep this from turning into a full-length tax guide, here are a few additional changes in summary form:

• Catch-up contributions go Roth-only for higher earners: Starting in 2026, employees age 50+ in a 401(k), 403(b), or governmental 457(b) with W-2 income above $150,000 must make catch-up contributions as Roth, increasing current-year taxes but potentially lowering taxes on future withdrawals.
• Income tax brackets: The tax rates themselves remain the same in 2026, but the income thresholds for each bracket will increase, providing a bit more room before you move into a higher bracket.
• Standard deduction: The standard deduction will increase to $32,200 for married couples filing jointly and $16,100 for single filers, slightly reducing taxable income for many households.
• Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs): The QCD limit will increase to $111,000 in 2026 (up from $108,000 in 2025). QCDs are available to investors age 70½ and older who give directly from a Traditional IRA to charity, and if you’re 73 or older, they can also be used to satisfy some or all of your RMD while potentially lowering your taxable income.

Bottom Line

As you digest these changes for 2026, remember, you don’t have to keep all the details in your head... that’s what the 2026 Tax Planning Cheat Sheet is for!

Use it alongside this email as you update contributions, revisit your Social Security and Medicare decisions, or prepare for conversations with your trusted advisor(s).

And if you’d like a second opinion on how these updates affect your long-term plan, you can learn more about our retirement planning services here or reply to this email with your questions.

📚 What I've Been Reading

• Charting Markets: A Look Back at 2025 (Novel Investor)
• Revisiting Safe Withdrawal Rates in Retirement (Capital Spectator)
• How Sequence Risk Works In Practice (Morningstar)
• Why We Save Anything At All (The Root of It All)
• Think of College Like You Would a Junk Bond (Advisor Perspectives)

Thank you for reading!

Please reply to this email with comments, questions, and/or feedback.

Stay wealthy,

Taylor Schulte, CFP®