Hi Mr. K,

Thanks to you and your great book (gave me a very solid base of knowledge) and a little help from one of your associates who called social security for me with me on the line (best few hundred I've ever spent, by the way--can't remember his name or his firm's name), I was able to figure out what the best course of action was for me to do after my lovely spouse passed--and I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Social security is such a confusing thing, even for the very well educated. CRAZY that we put up with this in this country since we all pay in for years.

I have another issue that I would like your associate to handle concerning my social security and Medicare. Each year they take out extra due to excessive income--which dropped by 150k this year so I shouldn't be paying any extra now according to their tables in their recent letter to me and which ends completely in 2022.

Can you provide a name possibly of someone who does this kind of work?

Thanks again--you are the best!

Debby

Hi Debby. No, I don't know of anyone to recommend, but I can try to explain how your Medicare premium rates are determined. First of all, a person's Medicare premium rates are normally determined based on their modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) (https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.25/handbook-2501.html) from two years prior to the effective date of the premium. For example, whether or not you'd be required to pay a higher than standard Medicare Part B premium rate in 2022 is determined based on the income you reported on your 2020 tax return.

You can ask Social Security to determine your premium rate based on a more recent tax year if your income has dropped, but only if the reduction was due to a life-changing event (LCE). Changes that are recognized as LCEs are listed in the following section of Social Security's handbook: https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.25/handbook-2501.html.

If the reduction in your income this year was due to an LCE, then you can ask Social Security to base your 2022 Medicare premiums on your 2021 tax return as opposed to your 2020 tax return. The form you would use for that purpose is an SSA-44 (https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ssa-44-ext.pdf).

Best, Jerry