Tax Mitigation in Retirement: Stop Volunteering Extra to the IRS
Taxes are usually the single largest expense in retirement — bigger than housing, healthcare, or travel. The good news: unlike those other costs, taxes are largely controllable.
Coordinate, Don't Just File
Your CPA files what already happened. Tax mitigation plans what's about to happen. We coordinate withdrawal order, Roth conversions, capital gains harvesting, charitable giving (QCDs after 70½), and the timing of Social Security to keep every dollar in the lowest bracket possible.
The Three Tax Buckets — Used Together
Taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts each have a job. Pulling proportionally from all three in retirement often beats the old 'taxable first, Roth last' rule by a wide margin.
Don't Forget the Surviving Spouse
When one spouse passes, the survivor jumps from married-filing-jointly to single brackets — often doubling the effective tax rate on the same income. Planning for the 'widow's tax penalty' is core to every retirement tax plan we build.
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