William Perry

Comments

• From reading CFR 418.1110.  titled "What is the effective date of our initial determination about your income-related monthly adjustment amount?" it appears to me the likely answer is the SSA would have defaulted to using your tax information from three years ago until you file your return for two years prior to determine any IRMAA surcharges. If that is correct then that part of the Code of Federal Regulations states - "b) When we (the SSA) have used modified adjusted gross income information from IRS for the tax year 3 years prior to the effective year to determine your income-related monthly adjustment amount and modified adjusted gross income information for the tax year 2 years prior later becomes available from IRS, we will review the new information to determine if we should revise our initial determination. If we revise our initial determination, the effective date of the new initial determination will be January 1 of the effective year, or the first month you were enrolled or re-enrolled in Medicare Part B if later than January." Like other Humble Dollar commenters I would encourage you to get current with your tax filings to resolve this issue for you or so your executor does not have this mess to deal with after you are gone if you owe any additional amount for IRMAA income based surcharges.
  My guess is that absent meeting a statutory reasonable cause for late filing your 1040 that the determination of late IRMAA premiums may be followed with a non-payment demand for payment in full with the serious potential consequences of loss of insurance coverage if timely payment in full is not paid.

  Post: IRMAA & late filing of tax returns

  Link to comment from July 17, 2026

• Thank you Jo Bo for the gift article.

  Post: About that inflation in retirement

  Link to comment from July 13, 2026

• It appears the 2026 report from the Social Security trustees includes an "expected" inflation rate of 2.7% for 2026 and then 2.4% for subsequent years in the calculation of the depletion date of the retirement trust fund. So my take is to worry about unexpected inflation which currently appears to me may be higher than the "intermediate" assumptions used by the trustees. A balanced approach between current and future generations seems to be a reasonable approach. My understanding is FDR was deeply concerned that Social Security not be viewed as a traditional welfare plan to build long-term political durability to the program.

  Post: About that inflation in retirement

  Link to comment from July 13, 2026

• On 3/25/2026 Morningstar published an article titled "Should You Keep Foreign Stocks Out of Your IRA?" by Christine Benz that seems relevant. In her article she concludes "Ultimately, tax credits are just one factor in the decision about whether to hold foreign stocks in a tax-sheltered account or a taxable one" and as she points out "The long-term advantages of having your assets compound inside of a tax-sheltered account are important, too, and they’re not wholly negated by forgone tax credits." For me the tax return simplicity of not having to currently file a 1116 (and especially for my wife if I predecease her) and the tiny amount of foreign tax credit the my Vanguard Global Stock Equity ETF (VT) throws off makes my decision to ignore the wasted foreign tax credits (FTC) an easy one for me. If I had a material amount of FTC then I would likely change my stock position and buy a separate fund for my foreign equity holdings as you discuss Matt, particularity if my FTC was below the tax threshold which mandates the filing of the 1116 form with my 1040.

  Post: The cost of foreign taxes on returns

  Link to comment from July 10, 2026

• I believe the personal use would be deemed a prohibited transaction and the entire Roth IRA would be deemed terminated and fully distributed in the year the personal use first occurs.

  Post: Thinking of a possible reason to tap Roth earlier then planned

  Link to comment from July 10, 2026

• Renting also provides some safeguards in the event the key family members you are moving to be nearer to later have to move themself, or if you find you do not like some or many aspects of where you are moving to such as losing relationships in long term medical, professional, church or friends or if the change adversely disrupts your major planning for taxes, retirement security or medical insurance.

  Post: Thinking of a possible reason to tap Roth earlier then planned

  Link to comment from July 8, 2026

• Yesterday's post on Can I Retire Yet? titled What to do with a Windfall and a current baker's dozen comments addresses many of the same concerns you ask about in this HD forum post. You may find David Champion's post interesting. The what for and when funds will be used seem to be key and would be particular to the specific decisions each of us each of us makes with a windfall of cash. I expect liability matching and liquidity will be key to my decisions along with having a sufficient cash cushion for when my planning turns out wrong.

  Post: Should I Lock in CD Rates Now or Stay in Money Market?

  Link to comment from July 7, 2026

• The major factor I am concerned with is future unexpected inflation so my decision is to build out a rolling 10 years Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) ladder for a large part of the fixed asset portion of my retirement portfolio while keeping a money market balance for our primary emergency / annual known lumpy expenditures fund and keeping a mostly unused large HELOC I could draw if needed. I am 18 months out of having the TIPS ladder built and will roll the ladder rungs into our Roth accounts as circumstances make sense tax wise.

  Post: Should I Lock in CD Rates Now or Stay in Money Market?

  Link to comment from July 6, 2026

• Treasury updates through 7/6/2026 on IRC 530A accounts - On the IRS website the Treasury announced the official opening of the IRC 530A accounts on 7/4/2026, You can link to that press release here. Two of the key elements recently announced IRC 530A rules were -

  1. the initial lineups of investments that are eligible to be held. You can find a link to that article in the above link.
  2. The exception from the donor having to file a gift tax return for certain gifts that are deemed to be a future interest caused by the inability to withdraw from the 530A until the beneficiary is age 18.
  Initial Investment Options - At launch, all contributions to Trump Accounts will be invested in the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM) Additionally Treasury has also selected the following additional low-cost index ETFs for the Trump Accounts investment lineup:
  • iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV)
  • Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI)
  • State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 1500 Composite Stock Market ETF (SPTM)
  • iShares Core S&P total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT)
  Gift Tax filing safe harbor - Rev. Proc. - 2026-25 The IRS issued Rev. Proc. 2026-25 which provides a gift tax reporting safe harbor for individual donors who make one or more contributions to Trump accounts under Sec. 530A and satisfy certain conditions. Key elements from the Rev. Proc. - SECTION 4. SCOPE .01 In general. The safe harbor described in section 5 of this revenue procedure applies for a particular calendar year only if all of the requirements of section 4.02 of this revenue procedure are met. .02 Requirements. (1) Taxpayer is an individual; (2) The only taxable gifts made by the taxpayer during the calendar year are cash contributions (in the form of cash, check, money order, or electronic funds transfer) to one or more Trump accounts, each made before the calendar year in which the account beneficiary attains age 18; (3) The taxpayer’s total gifts during the calendar year to each individual who is an account beneficiary, including contributions to that account beneficiary’s Trump account, do not exceed the annual exclusion amount under section 2503(b) ($19,000 for 2026); (4) Such contributions to Trump accounts made during the calendar year do not generate for that calendar year either a gift or GST tax liability, after application of the taxpayer’s remaining applicable credit amount against the gift tax, or remaining GST exemption; and (5) Disregarding the Trump account contributions described in section 4.02(2) of this revenue procedure, no gift tax return is required to be filed, and no gift tax return is otherwise filed, for that calendar year by or on behalf of the taxpayer, whether for GST tax, portability, or other purposes. SECTION 5. SAFE HARBOR If each of the requirements specified in section 4.02 of this revenue procedure is met for a calendar year in which a taxpayer makes contributions to one or more Trump accounts, each Trump account contribution made by the taxpayer during that calendar year will be treated as a completed gift to the account beneficiary that is not a future interest in property and to which the annual exclusion applies for purposes of gift tax, GST tax and gift tax reporting. As a result, taxpayers within the scope of section 4 of this revenue procedure will not be required to file a gift tax return reporting such contributions. No individual wants to take on the obligation to have to file a gift tax return every year they make any contribution to a 530A account and the IRS certainly does not want to process huge numbers of meaningless form 709 tax returns. This Rev. Proc. eliminates the need to file IRS form 709 for the vast majority of anyone who is choosing to make 530A contributions. This is an example of a good work around in my opinion.

  Post: IRS Notice 2025-68 – I’m trying to understand an aspect of the new tax law

  Link to comment from July 6, 2026

• I feel a similar disappointment in my state laws in that real property deeds in my state cannot provide for transfer at death where some US states do. A work around to avoid probate and still get step up in basis is transferring the property to a revocable living trust (RLT). I do not know if a RLT gambit is available in the UK for your stock but if I had stock from a demutualization that I wanted to be split among numerous heirs in the US I would consider a RLT to accomplish my intent as an alternative to the TOD. I wonder how difficult the probate is perceived in the UK.

  Post: Independence Day

  Link to comment from June 30, 2026