By Sarah Brenner, JD
Director of Retirement Education
Question:
Hello,
I’m married, filing jointly, and I have been converting my traditional IRA to Roth this year. If I convert too much and trigger higher Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) charges, can I do a recharacterization to remove the overage?
Thank you,
Terri
Answer:
Hi Terri,
IRMAA is a surcharge added to your Medicare premiums. It is calculated using income reported on your federal tax return from two years prior. A conversion done in 2026 will be included in income for this year and can impact IRMAA surcharges for 2028. You won’t know if you are over the 2028 brackets until they are released in 2027. Recharacterization of Roth IRA conversions was ended by Congress back in 2018. Conversions are now irrevocable and cannot be undone. If a conversion in 2026 pushes you over an IRMAA bracket in 2028, that conversion cannot be reversed. If you are concerned about future IRMAA charges due to an increase in income because of your 2026 Roth conversion, you may want to investigate other ways to lower income for the year.
Question:
Hello,
My wife inherited an IRA from her father who died in 2019. She kept the IRA as an inherited IRA and chose to distribute the proceeds over her life expectancy. She named me, her husband, as the beneficiary of this inherited IRA. Should she die before me, what are my options with the inherited IRA?
Thanks for your help.
Answer:
If you inherit this IRA from your wife, you will be a successor beneficiary. She is the original beneficiary of her father. As the successor beneficiary, you would be subject to the 10-year rule beginning in the year of your wife’s death. During the 10-year period, annual distributions based on your wife’s single life expectancy would need to continue. You would not be able to do a spousal rollover to your own IRA, even though you are inheriting the account from your wife. This is because you are a successor beneficiary.
If you have technical questions you would like to have answered, be sure to submit them to mailbag@irahelp.com, to be answered on an upcoming Slott Report Mailbag, published every Thursday.