# How Roth Conversions Affect Social Security Taxes and IRMAA

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-power-of-zero-show-1153145/how-roth-conversions-affect-social-security-taxes-and-irmaa.md
Podcast: [The Power Of Zero Show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-power-of-zero-show-1153145)
Published: 2026-05-13T05:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://media.podcastpartnership.net/secure/powerofzeroaudio/POZ393.mp3
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/powerofzeroaudio/POZ393.mp3?dest-id=857507
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-power-of-zero-show-1153145/episodes/how-roth-conversions-affect-social-security-taxes-and-irmaa
Duration seconds: 489

## Resource

David McKnight dissects a topic that causes a lot of confusion for retirees and pre-retirees: How Roth conversions affect social security taxation and Medicare premiums (IRMAA). Some warn against Roth conversions in retirement as they can cause your Social Security to become taxable and could also raise your Medicare premiums. While that's true, David believes that the long-term benefits of Roth conversions can far outweigh the temporary, short-term pain they can cause. In order to determine whether your Social Security benefits will be taxed, the IRS tracks the so-called provisional income. If you perform a Roth conversion after you begin collecting Social Security, that additional income can push you above certain thresholds that cause your Social Security benefits to become taxable. Medicare premiums are also influenced by your income through IRMAA (Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount), and they look at your income from two years earlier to determine your IRMAA bracket, Remember: A Roth conversion today could trigger higher Medicare premiums two years from now. David also explains that Roth withdrawals are not included in provisional income. Not only do they not cause your Social Security benefits to become taxable, but they also do not count towards the income thresholds that trigger higher Medicare premiums. As David points out, with the approach discussed in this episode, you're essentially compressing the tax pain into a few years, so you can enjoy decades of tax-free income later on. The national debt continues to spiral out of control to the point where economists are now predicting massive tax increases within the next 10 to 20 years. If such predictions are accurate, the people who will benefit most are those who have already shifted large portions of t…

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