Charlene G Moffatt, PC

08/19/2026

📋 Social Security does not withhold federal income tax automatically.

That surprises people who spent forty years watching taxes come out of a paycheck without being asked.

Social Security benefits can become federally taxable when combined income exceeds $25,000 for an individual or $32,000 for a couple filing jointly.

Crossing those lines does not make the whole benefit taxable, though: depending on where combined income lands, up to 50% and eventually up to 85% of benefits can be included in taxable income.

If you want tax withheld, you get exactly four choices: 7%, 10%, 12%, or 22% of each monthly payment.

No other percentage is allowed, and flat dollar amounts are not accepted.

There are three ways to start, change, or stop it, and the easiest is to sign in to a my Social Security account and set the rate yourself.

You can also call Social Security, or sign IRS Form W-4V and mail or deliver it to a local office, and the form was revised in January 2026.

If these rates don't cover your tax bill, you may need estimated payments or additional withholding elsewhere.

The rate worth revisiting is the one you set years ago and forgot, especially after a spouse dies, an RMD starts, or a pension begins.

Do you have withholding turned on, or do you settle up at filing time?

P.S. Once a week, I email the best money article I read, with my take on this week's top Facebook posts and what's new on the Ways to Wealth blog. It's free, and you can sign up on the Ways to Wealth home page.

R.J. Weiss, CFP®



The content shared here is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not personalized investment, tax, legal, or financial advice. Consult a licensed professional before making decisions based on your specific situation.

08/06/2026

🧠 A power of attorney is legally valid the day it is signed, and then gets tested years later at a teller window, in a crisis, by a bank that says no.

Banks refuse POAs constantly, and the most common reason is nothing more than age: the document is legally fine, but a decade-old signature makes compliance departments nervous.

The fix list is short and has one catch: every item on it requires the person who signed to still be well.

Refresh the document every 3 to 5 years, because banks trust fresh ink.

Sign the bank's own POA form at every institution where money lives, since banks honor their own paperwork fastest.

Make sure the document says durable, with banking powers spelled out, or it can die at exactly the moment it was written for.

When presenting it, bring an agent's certification that the POA is in force, which answers the bank's real fear.

And if a bank still refuses, ask for the reason in writing, because many states penalize unreasonable refusal of a valid POA, and that request moves the decision from the teller to the legal department.

Has a bank ever refused a POA in your family?

P.S. Once a week, I email the best money article I read, with my take on this week's top Facebook posts and what's new on the Ways to Wealth blog. It's free, and you can sign up on the Ways to Wealth home page.

R.J. Weiss, CFP®



*The content shared here is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not personalized investment, tax, legal, or financial advice. Consult a licensed professional before making decisions based on your specific situation.*

08/05/2026

If you're turning 65, you have a 7-month window to sign up for Medicare Part B — and missing it can cost you real money.

The window opens 3 months before your birthday month, includes your birthday month, and closes 3 months after. That's your Initial Enrollment Period (IEP).

Miss it, and you'll face a late-enrollment penalty: 10% of the standard premium for every full 12-month period you were eligible but didn't enroll. In 2026, the standard Part B premium is $202.90 a month — so a one-year delay adds $20.29 a month to your premium, and that penalty lasts as long as you have Part B.

Wait two years, and the penalty rises to $40.58 a month, permanently.

There are exceptions if you're still covered through an employer, but if you're not — and most people aren't by 65 — the clock starts three months before your birthday.

Here's what to do: Mark your calendar for the month you turn 64½. That's when your 7-month IEP opens. Sign up on time, and you'll never pay the penalty.

Know someone turning 65 soon? Send this to them now — it's one of the easiest mistakes to avoid if you just know the window.

08/05/2026

The 2.8% COLA bump sounds nice until you realize Medicare premiums are eating a big chunk of it before it ever hits your account.

Here's what changed with Social Security for 2026, and what it actually means for your check.

The average retiree got a $56 monthly increase from the COLA, bringing the typical benefit to about $2,071.

But Medicare Part B premiums also rose, from $185 to $202.90, an increase of $17.90 a month.

Since most retirees have Part B automatically deducted from their Social Security check, that increase gets subtracted before you ever see it.

Do the math and your real increase drops from $56 down to about $38 a month.

That means Medicare alone is quietly absorbing almost a third of this year's COLA.

Here's what else changed alongside it.

Maximum monthly benefit at full retirement age is now $4,152.

Maximum taxable earnings jumped to $184,500.

Earnings limits for people working while collecting benefits before full retirement age also increased, to $24,480 if you're under full retirement age all year, and $65,160 if you're reaching it sometime in 2026.

None of these numbers are complicated on their own.

But if you're only tracking the COLA percentage and ignoring what Medicare takes back out, you're not seeing your actual raise.

Check your real number, not just the headline one.

08/04/2026

🧱 An HSA left to anyone other than a spouse generally stops being an HSA on the date of death, and its value becomes taxable income to that beneficiary in that single year.

There is no 10-year window and no stretch. It lands at once.

That is why it sits at the top of this list, ahead of accounts that hold far more money.

A traditional IRA or 401(k) is second because of size rather than speed: most non-spouse beneficiaries must empty it within 10 years, and the taxable portion comes out as ordinary income.

After-tax basis inside the account is not taxed again, and eligible designated beneficiaries, including a surviving spouse, a minor child of the owner, and a disabled or chronically ill beneficiary, are not held to the 10 years at all.

A non-qualified annuity gets no step-up in basis, and non-annuitized withdrawals generally come out gain-first, so the taxable part arrives before the return of principal.

Savings bonds hold years of deferred interest that can hit in one tax year when they are redeemed or reach final maturity, though only the interest is taxable and the estate can elect to report interest accrued through the date of death.

Honorable mention: a house in another state. It generally receives a date-of-death basis adjustment, which is the good news, but if it is still probate-owned it can pull the family into a second probate in the state where it sits.

Which of these has actually shown up in your family, and did anyone see it coming?

P.S. Once a week, I email the best money article I read, with my take on this week's top Facebook posts and what's new on the Ways to Wealth blog. It's free, and you can sign up on the Ways to Wealth home page.

R.J. Weiss, CFP®



*The content shared here is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not personalized investment, tax, legal, or financial advice. Consult a licensed professional before making decisions based on your specific situation.*

08/04/2026

💰 How much will you really pay for Medicare Part B in 2026?

If your income is above $109,000 (or $218,000 filing jointly), you'll pay more than the standard $202.90 monthly premium — a lot more. Medicare adds an income-related surcharge, and it starts at the very first tier. The surcharge is permanent for that year, and it's based on your tax return from two years earlier.

Here's what most people miss: a Roth conversion, pension lump sum, or even selling a rental property can push you over a threshold — and you won't know until the bill arrives. The top surcharge brings your total monthly premium to $689.90 once income reaches $500,000 single or $750,000 joint.

The good news: if your income drops due to a life-changing event — retirement, divorce, loss of income — you can ask Medicare to recalculate using Form SSA-44. Most people never file it, even when they qualify.

Know someone turning 65 or retiring soon? Share this — it could save them hundreds every month.

07/24/2026

Due to rising recent rises in the price of fuel, IRS has revised the standard mileage rates effective for travel on or after July 1, 2026.

The previously released rates for 2026 will continue to apply for travel on or after January 1, 2026, and before July 1, 2026.

The rates for travel on or after July 1, 2026 are:
- The business standard mileage rate is increased to 76 cents per mile (up from 72.5 cents per mile applicable for the first six months of 2026). The depreciation portion of this rate remains at 35 cents per mile for the entire year.
- Medical and moving standard mileage rate is 23.5 cents per mile (up from 20.5 cents per mile for the first six months of the 2026).
- Charitable rate is 14 cents per mile (same as it has been for years, since this is set by Congress).

Those using the standard mileage rates will need to have two sets of mileage figures for the year: January to June & July to December.

07/15/2026

The IRS ordinarily sets the optional standard mileage rates just before the tax year. This midyear adjustment was prompted by recent increases in fuel prices.

When the IRS announced the original 2026 rates in late December, gas prices were near their lowest level in years. The national average for regular gasoline was about $2.89 per gallon in December 2025.

As of July 13, 2026, AAA put the national average at roughly $3.87 per gallon, an increase of about 98 cents, or 34%. Much of that increase reflects the disruption and uncertainty in global oil markets caused by the war in Iran, including concerns about production and the movement of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

As a result, the IRS increased the mileage rates. Learn more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2026/07/13/irs-announces-increase-in-standard-mileage-rates-for-the-second-half-of-2026/?utm_source=ForbesMainFacebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ForbesMainFB

06/17/2026

I have heard first hand stories of banks rejecting valid POA’s. This article has some good advice to consider.

⚖️ A durable power of attorney does not expire, but your bank can still turn it down.

Banks reject valid POAs for being too old, too vague, missing durable language, or simply not written on the bank's own form.

The reason is liability: a bank that honors a forged or revoked document can be sued, and once you have lost capacity, there is no one left for it to call to confirm your agent is real.

Four things make a POA much harder to refuse: have each bank review it now while you can still confirm it, complete the bank's own form alongside the attorney-drafted version, refresh it every three to five years, and spell out specific powers like wire transfers and account access.

In many states the bank now has a few days to accept a valid POA or put its reason in writing, and refusing a valid one without cause can leave it owing the legal costs to enforce the document, though that fight still takes time a family in crisis may not have.

For the accounts a trust can hold, a funded revocable living trust avoids the problem altogether, because the trust owns them and a named successor trustee steps in without a POA question.

Retirement accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s cannot be retitled into a trust while you are alive, so a durable POA, or the custodian's own form, stays the only way for someone to act on those during incapacity.

Has a bank ever given you trouble using a document for a parent or spouse?



*The content shared here is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not personalized investment, tax, legal, or financial advice. Consult a licensed professional before making decisions based on your specific situation.*