By coinnews 
00:00 Brad
Tax Day is officially over, but that doesn’t mean you should toss all of your financial statements into a drawer and ignore them for a calendar year, especially if you’re retired. Here with several things seniors can do right now to make your 2025 taxes just a little bit easier. We’ve got Yahoo Finance senior columnist, Carrie Hannan. Hey, Carrie.
00:17 Carrie Hannan
Hey, good morning, Brad. Uh, great to be here. There are some things that people can think of. I’ve got a list of five. I’ll try to go through them quickly. The first one is, uh, pay attention to your required minimum distributions, your RMDs. And now, starting at age 73, is when people need to start paying attention, as many people are already doing this. What’s important this year to remember is that it is, this number is calculated by the, the size of your portfolio or your retirement assets, tax deferred, December 31st, divided by your long, your life expectancy that the IRS has come up with in their chart. So the, the news is that the markets were crazy high and giddy at the end of the year, uh, December 31st. So you’re going to have, uh, even though markets have dropped down or are volatile right now, what you’re paying on is that number, the amount you’re going to take out is going to be calculated. So you’re going to have a higher amount this year, potentially. Um, so really plan for that. Um, you can also, something that, that’s, um, that’s important to note is that, um, at age 73, um, you need to start taking, you have until April of the following year. So if you turn 73 this year, uh, it, you have until April to take that first distribution, but you will also need to take another one in December. That means that you’ll have two, two RMDs next year. So, uh, the advisors I spoke to said, you know, you might think about taking that, that first, uh, uh, RMD this year, uh, instead of delaying it until April, just to even out that tax burden. And one reason, you know, we were saying that the RMDs are going to be high, but uh, another expert, Ed Slot, I spoke to said, “Hey, maybe that’s a good idea because tax rates are still, uh, historically low this year, and potentially they could bump up next year if the tax law, uh, that was temporarily put in place, uh, that is due to sunset this year is not re-upped.” And so you might take advantage of those lower tax rates and go ahead and do that. The other thing folks can do is a charitable qual, it’s called a qualified charitable distribution. And if you’re a charitably inclined person and you would give to charity anyway, this is one thing you can do with your required minimum distribution, your RMD. You can direct it to go directly into a charitable organization. And that is one way to satisfy your RMD and do good at the same time. Um, there are some other tax breaks that people might consider around the edges. You know, for example, if you’re considering aging in place and you might want to revamp your home a little bit, there are tax breaks for, uh, energy efficient home improvements, so you might look into, or, uh, look at other things like investing in tax exempt bonds that, um, are free from federal tax and, and in many cases, local and state tax as well. So, I know that’s kind of a quick rundown, but there are things. The important thing, uh, Brad, is for people to start paying attention to what their likely tax bill is going to be in 2026.