Taxtirement

Retirement tax questions · 2026 figures

What happens to our taxes when one of us dies?

After a spouse dies, the survivor usually files as single, with brackets about half as wide and lower limits everywhere, often on most of the same income. Taxes and Medicare premiums can go up even though the household is smaller. Planners call it the widow's penalty. It falls on widowers too, and it's one of the main reasons couples look at Roth conversions while both are alive.

In short

  • In the year of the death the survivor can usually still file jointly. From the next year, unless they have a dependent, they usually file as single.
  • One Social Security benefit stops (the survivor keeps the larger one), but IRA withdrawals and many pensions continue.
  • Single-filer brackets, deductions and Medicare surcharge lines are about half of a couple's, so more of the income is taxed at higher rates.
  • In the example below, income falls by $15,600 a year and federal tax rises by $3,709.

Why it's easy to miss

Couples plan as a couple. The years one of you may live alone are easy to leave out of the plan, and there can be many of them. The income doesn't shrink as much as the limits do:

  • Social Security: the smaller of the two benefits stops; the larger one continues.
  • IRAs: a surviving spouse can treat the IRA as their own. The balance is the same, so required withdrawals are about the same, now on a single return.
  • Pensions: a joint-and-survivor pension continues, in full or in part.

What changes on a single return (2026)

LimitMarried filing jointlySingle
Top of the 12% bracket (taxable income)$100,800$50,400
Standard deduction$32,200, plus $1,650 for each spouse 65 or older$16,100, plus $2,050 at 65 or older
Senior deduction starts to shrink above$150,000$75,000
Social Security starts to be taxed above$32,000$25,000
Up to 85% of Social Security taxed above$44,000$34,000
First Medicare surcharge (IRMAA) above$218,000$109,000
Investment income tax above$250,000$200,000

The Social Security and investment-income lines are written into the law and have never been raised for inflation, so more retirees cross them every year.

An example with 2026 figures

A married couple, both over 65. They take $70,000 a year from IRAs, and their Social Security benefits are $2,400 and $1,300 a month. One of them dies. The next year, the survivor takes the same $70,000 from the IRAs (now their own) and keeps the larger benefit.

Federal income taxTogetherSurvivor alone
IRA withdrawals$70,000$70,000
Social Security for the year$44,400$28,800
Household income$114,400$98,800
Taxable part of Social Security$37,740$24,480
Adjusted gross income$107,740$94,480
Deductions, including the senior deduction$47,500$22,981
Taxable income$60,240$71,499
Bracket12%22%
Federal income tax$6,733$10,442

The household's income falls by $15,600, and its federal income tax rises by $3,709. The survivor's senior deduction also starts to shrink, because their income is above the single line. And their income is now only $14,520 below the first single Medicare surcharge line, which is half the couple's; a larger IRA withdrawal or a capital gain of more than that would raise their premiums two years later.

What couples can look at while both are alive

  • Roth conversions in the joint-filing years, when the brackets are wider, so less sits in IRAs for the single years. See Roth conversions.
  • When the larger Social Security benefit starts, since it becomes the survivor's benefit. See Social Security start ages.
  • Pension survivor options: how much of a pension continues to the survivor.
  • The Medicare appeal: after a spouse's death, the survivor can ask Social Security to base the surcharge on the new, lower income (Form SSA-44). See Medicare surcharges.

What Taxtirement shows

iPhone Survivor screen: choose who dies first and the year, then see what changes for the survivor in Social Security, spending and filing status
What changes for the survivor, from the sample household.
  • The survivor years in every plan. Choose who dies first and when, and see the change in income, filing status, taxes and Medicare premiums.
  • Last year together next to the first year alone, line by line.
  • Roth conversion scenarios that count the survivor years, and a check of how each scenario holds up if one of you dies early.
  • An "If I die first" guide for each of you to print and keep: what changes, and the steps to take.

References

The rules and figures on this page come from these official sources; the household in the example is made up. The app's calculations are also checked against them; see How we check our numbers.

Laws

Regulations and official guidance

Forms, instructions and publications

Agency data

See it with your own numbers. Taxtirement works out every year of retirement for your household, federal and state, and puts the scenarios side by side so you can compare them. Coming November 2026 for iPhone, iPad and Mac.

More retirement tax questions

This page explains the 2026 rules as Taxtirement applies them, for education and planning. The example is a simplified household (federal income tax only, unless it says otherwise); your own figures will differ. It isn't investment, tax or legal advice. Rules change; check the official instructions, or a tax professional, before acting. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.