Can somebody explain why medicare premiums are based on your income? If you were/are an upper income earner you paid in a lot more than people on the lower economic scale. Then when you become eligible you get to pay an additional medicare tax of almost $500 per month. Isn't this backward.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Medicare Question
Collapse
X
-
Originally posted by Huntingfool View PostOnly thing I can think of is that with higher income your social security payments are quite a bit higher than lower income payments -
Comment
-
Originally posted by M16 View PostI've been chronically unemployed for the last ten years. But I'm fixin to retire.
Medicare premiums are based on your modified adjusted gross income, or MAGI. That’s your total adjusted gross income plus tax-exempt interest, as gleaned from the most recent tax data Social Security has from the IRS. To set your Medicare cost for 2022, Social Security likely relied on the tax return you filed in 2021 that details your 2020 earnings.
If your MAGI for 2020 was less than or equal to the “higher-income” threshold — $91,000 for an individual taxpayer, $182,000 for a married couple filing jointly — you pay the “standard” Medicare Part B rate for 2022, which is $170.10 a month. At higher incomes, premiums rise, to a maximum of $578.30 a month if your MAGI exceeded $500,000 for an individual, $750,000 for a couple.
You can ask Social Security to adjust your premium if a “life-changing event” caused significant income reduction or financial disruption in the intervening tax year — for example, if your marital status changed, or you lost a job, pension or income-producing property.
Comment
Comment