Frequently asked questions

No. TaxWiseRetire is an informational planning tool, not a licensed financial advisor or tax preparer. It's designed to help you understand and project your own numbers, but it doesn't replace advice from a qualified professional — especially for decisions with real tax or legal consequences. Always confirm significant decisions with a licensed advisor or CPA.

All 50 states and Washington, D.C. are supported, with tax data across all five IRS filing statuses (Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately, Head of Household, and Qualifying Surviving Spouse).

Free accounts can add unlimited people and accounts to their household, and fully configure up to 50 saved plans with up to 25 accounts each. You also get one free full plan preview — a real calculated projection plus the multi-sheet Excel export — so you can see actual numbers before deciding whether to upgrade. After that, running additional projections and exports requires a Paid subscription.

Yes. Paid subscriptions are billed monthly through Stripe and can be canceled at any time from your account — you'll keep access through the end of your current billing period.

Your account and plan data are stored securely, and payments are processed entirely by Stripe — TaxWiseRetire never sees or stores your card details. See our Privacy Policy for details on what information is collected and how it's used.

Required minimum distributions are calculated using the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, and tax brackets are sourced from current federal and state tax tables. Federal and state tax figures, Medicare surcharge tiers, property tax rates, and cost-of-living data are refreshed each year directly from official published sources (IRS Revenue Procedures, CMS, Tax Foundation, U.S. Census Bureau, Federal Reserve), not re-typed by hand — with an automated monthly check that flags any figure the moment its source updates it. Tax law changes over time, and TaxWiseRetire's figures are estimates for planning purposes — they shouldn't be treated as a substitute for a professional tax filing.

Yes — Free accounts can save up to 50 plans, useful for comparing different retirement ages, contribution strategies, or even different states side by side. A Paid subscription removes that cap for unlimited plans and lets you run and export the actual projection for every one of them.

Yes. If a household member is 65 or older during your plan, TaxWiseRetire projects Medicare Part B and Part D IRMAA surcharges year by year, based on income from two years prior — the same lookback Medicare actually uses. It's optional and off by default, and it's part of running a full projection, so it requires a Paid subscription like the rest of the projection results.

Yes. You set a target federal tax bracket ceiling, and each year TaxWiseRetire converts enough from your Traditional IRA/401(k) into a paired Roth account to fill up to that ceiling — never more than your actual account balance allows. You can also have it factor in Medicare IRMAA thresholds so a conversion doesn't quietly trigger a higher premium two years later. Conversion is restricted to a planning window right before RMDs begin — 5 years by default, adjustable per plan — since tax law and personal circumstances are genuinely hard to predict further out; no conversion happens outside that window, even after RMDs start.

Yes. TaxWiseRetire re-runs your plan as if you'd never converted at all, then shows you a year-by-year cost/savings comparison against that baseline — plus an honest bottom line: your projected ending account balance with conversion versus without. Early years typically show a cost (converting pulls tax liability forward); later years typically show savings from avoiding higher future brackets, Medicare surcharges, or required distributions. If a conversion wouldn't pay off within your plan's horizon, we show that too — this isn't a feature that only tells you good news.

Yes, if you turn that option on — though paying the tax from other funds (the default) is generally the better outcome, since it lets the full converted amount grow tax-free in Roth. With withholding on, only the after-tax amount reaches your Roth account, and if you're under 60, the withheld portion may also be hit with a 10% federal early-withdrawal penalty. TaxWiseRetire shows you exactly how much was withheld each year and tracks what that money would be worth today had it stayed invested instead, so the real cost of withholding is never hidden.

Yes. TaxWiseRetire re-runs your exact plan — same accounts, same withdrawal strategy, same everything — against the tax rules of all 50 states and DC, then ranks the states that would genuinely save you money: combined income tax, property tax, and cost-of-living differences, not income tax alone. A state with no income tax but a high cost of living won't automatically outrank a state with real income tax but a much lower cost of living. States that wouldn't actually save you money aren't shown; if none would, we tell you that too instead of listing a hollow top 10. We also show how each state shifts your projected ending wealth, since total savings doesn't always mean more money at the end — state tax differences can change withdrawal timing along the way. It's computed on demand from your saved plan (nothing is saved automatically) and is part of the full projection, so it requires a Paid subscription like the rest of the projection results.

TaxWiseRetire re-runs your exact plan three ways — claiming at 62, at your own Full Retirement Age, and at 70 — using the real Social Security Administration early-claiming reduction and delayed-retirement credit formula to adjust the benefit amount for each scenario, not just the flat number you entered. You'll see each scenario's cumulative Social Security received, cumulative net after-tax income, and ending account balance side by side, so you can weigh the tradeoff for your own plan rather than relying on generic claiming-age advice. It's computed on demand from your saved plan and is part of the full projection, so it requires a Paid subscription.

Yes, if you turn it on. For any plan year at least one household member is under 65 (pre-Medicare), TaxWiseRetire can model your ACA marketplace premium tax credit against the 400% Federal Poverty Line subsidy cliff — reinstated as current law starting in 2026 after the temporarily-enhanced pandemic-era subsidies expired. You enter your household size and your area's benchmark Silver plan premium (from healthcare.gov, since we have no marketplace pricing data of our own), and the year-by-year cost/subsidy shows up right alongside your income tax and Medicare figures — so a big Roth conversion or income year doesn't quietly cost you your health insurance subsidy without you seeing it coming.

Yes. The Roth Ceiling Optimizer searches a range of federal bracket ceilings and IRMAA-avoidance settings against your own plan and recommends the one that best fits the goal you choose — maximize lifetime net income, minimize lifetime tax, or maximize ending net worth. You can review the recommendation and apply it to your plan in one click, or keep the ceiling you set yourself. It's computed on demand and requires a Paid subscription like the rest of the projection results.

Yes. Every other projection in TaxWiseRetire assumes a fixed growth rate per account, but Monte Carlo simulation runs your exact plan 100 to 1,000 times against randomized annual returns for each account's assigned risk profile — Conservative, Balanced, or Aggressive — and reports the percentage of trials where your income never meaningfully fell short of your target, plus a 10th/50th/90th percentile range for your ending balance each year. It shows you how much your plan actually depends on getting lucky with market timing, not just what happens on average, and requires a Paid subscription.

Yes. Add it as an Inherited Traditional IRA or Inherited Roth IRA account, along with the decedent's dates and your beneficiary category, and TaxWiseRetire calculates the required distributions automatically under the SECURE Act — the 10-year full-distribution deadline for most beneficiaries, or an annual stretch payment over your own life expectancy if you're an Eligible Designated Beneficiary (a minor child, someone disabled or chronically ill, or not more than 10 years younger than the decedent). One part of this rule — whether an annual amount is owed during the 10-year window itself — is a genuinely disputed area of tax law, and TaxWiseRetire flags its estimate with an on-screen disclaimer recommending you verify with a tax professional before relying on it. If you're a surviving spouse who has rolled the account into your own IRA, just add it as a regular Traditional or Roth IRA instead — that's simpler and usually the better move.

Yes. Set a minimum annual after-tax income you want guaranteed — it's inflation-adjusted every year, not a flat number that loses buying power over time — and TaxWiseRetire automatically draws from your accounts in whatever priority order you choose to make up any shortfall, refined in two passes so the numbers land close to your target without overshooting. You can also set up separate scheduled distributions (like a fixed percentage starting a certain year) that run independently alongside it, so a planned withdrawal is never mistaken for a top-up.

Yes — this is a separate feature from the income-floor guarantee above. "Find Sustainable Income Floor" runs a solver against your exact plan (accounts, tax situation, and draw-down order all included) and recommends the highest minimum annual income your plan can actually sustain for its full time horizon, whether that means raising your current setting or lowering it. Review the recommendation side by side with your current setting, then apply it in one click. It's free on every plan, no card required.

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