From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.advocacy

On 7/29/2025 11:05 AM, -hh wrote:

That's because your personal situation is irrelevant to the general use
case and of everyone else's situations.

Precisely, so stop offering advice that does not apply to my circumstances.

IRMAA is a consideration. We are very close to hitting a limit, and for
very little long term benefit.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.advocacy

On 8/6/25 10:54, Tom Elam wrote:

On 7/29/2025 11:05 AM, -hh wrote:

That's because your personal situation is irrelevant to the general
use case and of everyone else's situations.

Precisely, so stop offering advice that does not apply to my circumstances.

You got that backwards: stop whining about general use case because
your personal circumstances don't fit the general use case.

IRMAA is a consideration. We are very close to hitting a limit, and for
very little long term benefit.

Well, well: that's a very useless statement, because the IRMAA brackets
lack significant separation (roughly just $55K for MFJ), especially in
the context of Roth conversions ...

... plus ...

... the IRMAA values for 2026 Medicare rates aren't known yet to know if
your 2024 income was close to a limit or just over.

-hh
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.advocacy

On 8/6/2025 3:52 PM, -hh wrote:

Well, well:  that's a very useless statement, because the IRMAA brackets lack significant separation (roughly just $55K for MFJ), especially in
the context of Roth conversions ...

... plus ...

... the IRMAA values for 2026 Medicare rates aren't known yet to know if your 2024 income was close to a limit or just over.

You are wrong on both counts. We were very close to hitting the step-up
this year based on 2023 IRMAA.

Our 2024 income was also almost enough to trip a step-up if applied to
2025. The 2026 IRMAA forecast brackets are a 2.5-3% increase. So we will
be close.

I am beginning to think you are really stupid hiding behind convoluted arguments.
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.advocacy

On 8/11/25 10:28, Tom Elam wrote:

On 8/6/2025 3:52 PM, -hh wrote:

Well, well:  that's a very useless statement, because the IRMAA
brackets lack significant separation (roughly just $55K for MFJ),
especially in the context of Roth conversions ...

... plus ...

... the IRMAA values for 2026 Medicare rates aren't known yet to know
if your 2024 income was close to a limit or just over.

You are wrong on both counts. We were very close to hitting the step-up
this year based on 2023 IRMAA.

My point was that was essentially just good luck on your part, because
you didn't have the IRMAA numbers for 2025 back in 2023 to be able to accurately, deliberately plan to be a "buck under".

Our 2024 income was also almost enough to trip a step-up if applied to
2025. The 2026 IRMAA forecast brackets are a 2.5-3% increase. So we will
be close.

Keyword being "forecast".

Now if your 2024 income was indeed below the 2023 income values
published for 2025, then you will be under that same IRMAA bracket for
2026 ... but for purposes of being "close", not really: at the $266K
MFJ bracket, not using a 2.5% increase is ~$6.6K left on the table.

And since this bracket is $212K-$266K = just $54K wide, to forgo $6.6K
right off the bat is over 10% of that bracket's total width, so one is
not particularly "close" (even before including however much you were
also short of the 2023 cap)

I am beginning to think you are really stupid hiding behind convoluted arguments.

Nah, your weak insult attempt doesn't change the fact that the IRMAA
brackets for 2025 income which will be applied in 2027 are utterly
unknowable today.

That's because they're not published until 11 months after the end of
2025, which was the last chance that you had to actually do anything
about it.

This unknowability IRMAA risk aspect also increases as one has more
taxable brokerage investment funds with tax implications.

Consider for example, PJFAX. It had an earnings surprise in 2024 where
its payout was ~double that of 2023. So even if one had planned for
IRMAA based on 2023, you're now off by potentially quite a big chunk:
if one had just $300K in this fund, earnings surprise difference on its
own is the equivalent of a half IRMAA bracket jump.

The only time that one really has fine control over IRMAA bracket
targets is when there's minimal/no taxable income variance. Which then
pretty much excludes having a taxable brokerage investment account with
any appreciable amount of assets therein.


-hh
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