How to Avoid Higher Taxes After the Death of a Spouse
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your Money Briefing for Tuesday, March 5th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal.
Why do surviving spouses often face a tax increase after a partner dies?
The emotional toll of the death of a partner is often followed by the financial toll of higher taxes levied on the surviving spouse. But there are steps you can take to lessen the tax hit.
Really, this is something that ideally you should be starting way before either spouse dies. It's very important to understand the effects that taxes can have on your overall picture. So it's really important that to the extent that you can plan ahead, it's really a good thing.
We'll talk to Wall Street Journal contributor Cheryl Winokur-Monk after the break.
Surviving spouses can make specific moves with their finances to avoid getting hit with a spike in taxes. Wall Street Journal contributor Cheryl Winokur-Monk joins me. Cheryl, why do spouses of deceased partners fall into what is sometimes called a survivor trap?
When can a surviving spouse still file jointly and when do they switch to single status?
It's actually a very frustrating situation for survivors. It arises in the years after a spouse dies. And the first year after the spouse dies, you can still file married jointly. But the following year and in the years after, you often see a higher tax bill. And that can be for a number of reasons. Sometimes that status is because the surviving spouse goes into a higher tax bracket, even if the income remains the same.
How do required minimum distributions (RMDs) affect a surviving spouse’s taxable income?
And sometimes you have this problem because the new filing status eliminates certain tax breaks that are available to married couples. For example, if you're itemizing your taxes, you get a much higher itemized deduction, double the amount as a couple than you would as a single person.
What role do taxable accounts and step‑up in basis play in lowering capital gains taxes?
So it's after the first full tax year after the death of a spouse that the surviving spouse would be filing a single?
Yes.
Let's talk about how a surviving spouse can mitigate these taxes. What moves can somebody make with their retirement account?
There's a concept called a RMD, required minimum distribution. And those are required with certain retirement accounts, such as traditional IRAs. And those required minimum distributions begin the year an account holder reaches age 73, and that rises to age 75 in 2033. When you start having to take out these distributions, it actually bumps up your income in the year that you take it out.
How can charitable donations and itemized deductions help mitigate the survivor tax trap?
And so that can make a big difference in terms of you have more income, then you're paying more taxes, theoretically, unless you can find ways to mitigate that. One of the ways that you can do this is to make sure you have some investments within taxable accounts that aren't going to be subject to required minimum distributions. And those are what you have to take out of your retirement accounts after you reach a certain age. So if you have investments within taxable accounts, such as like stocks, for example, you're not going to be taxed if you don't sell. These are in non-required retirement accounts. I'm talking in taxable accounts. You own stocks, let's say. But you're not going to be taxed if you don't sell.
But then if you do sell, that spouse can get what's called a step-up in basis.
How can moving or changing state domicile reduce post‑death tax burdens?
And that just eliminates the capital gain that occurred between the original purchase and the spouse's death. So the capital gains tax is assessed based on the difference between the asset sale price and what you buy it for.
When should couples start planning with a tax advisor to avoid the survivor tax trap?
So if I paid $100 for a stock and sold it for $200, then I'm paying capital gains on that $100 difference.
If there's a significant age difference between the spouses, how would that change this equation?
When a spouse dies and he or she has an IRA, you can have what's called an inherited IRA. But if there are required minimum distributions on that, that would continue based on the age and life expectancy of the deceased spouse. So in one example, there was a woman in her 60s, and her husband was in his 80s when he passed. Based on the RMDs of her husband, it would have been about $70,000 a year of distributions. So instead, that spouse was able to roll over that IRA, and because of her age, she didn't have to take RMDs. So that eliminated this whole piece of ordinary income from her tax return.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:11
2
Why do surviving spouses often face a tax increase after a partner dies?
0:11–1:17
3
When can a surviving spouse still file jointly and when do they switch to single status?
1:17–1:43
4
How do required minimum distributions (RMDs) affect a surviving spouse’s taxable income?
1:43–2:02
5
What role do taxable accounts and step‑up in basis play in lowering capital gains taxes?
2:02–2:46
6
How can charitable donations and itemized deductions help mitigate the survivor tax trap?
2:46–3:30
7
How can moving or changing state domicile reduce post‑death tax burdens?
3:30–3:43
8
When should couples start planning with a tax advisor to avoid the survivor tax trap?
3:43–7:34
Speakers
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