Though it feels like the first fall rains only just washed away the last vestiges of summer, the holiday season is upon us, and with it all the usual pre-year-end bustle. To help you prioritize, we are sending along a few important dates for your calendars. We know that combining several topics into one newsletter means there is a good chance one or two of the items will not apply to your situation. Please disregard those instances, or consider sharing this email with someone that might benefit from the information.
Medicare Re-Enrollment: The Medicare Open Enrollment period runs from October 15th through December 7th for plans effective January 1, 2023. During this time, you can change your Medicare Part D plan or your Medicare Advantage plan. You can find additional information about protecting yourself from fraud, how to research which prescription drug plan is right for you and other topics using the following links: Medicare – Sign up or Change Plans and Medicare – Explore Coverage Options. Since the process can be complicated, we recommend you reach out to a Medicare specialist with questions and to help you review your options. Below we list two trusted Medicare consultants and their preferred contact information (consultations with them are free of charge):
- Theresa Baker and team at Baker Insurance Group in Snoqualmie, WA:
(425) 292-0004 or click here to schedule a meeting with Baker Insurance Group - The team at Boomer Benefits of Fort Worth, TX (who cover 48 states):
(817) 249-8600 or boomerbenefits.com
You can also click here to view their expansive library of Medicare-related content.
WA Cares Long-Term Care Exemption Process: For our Washington based clients who have long-term care insurance coverage that was purchased on or before November 1, 2021, the deadline to submit your one-time application for exemption from the state tax is December 31, 2022. We have attached a step-by-step guide to requesting an exemption via the WA Cares Fund Exemption site. Since this is a one-time exemption, we recommend all people that have a qualifying policy apply regardless of whether you will be receiving earned income (W-2) in 2023 and beyond.
There have been some legislative changes since the program was originally announced, and the tax is now scheduled to begin July 1, 2023. The criteria for exemption from the tax has also been expanded to include “workers who live outside of Washington, military spouses, workers holding non-immigrant visas, and certain veterans with disabilities. Exemption applications for newly eligible groups will become available January 1, 2023.”
If you live or work in Washington and are unfamiliar with this topic, please let us know and we will share some additional materials with you.
Year-End Charitable Giving Deadlines: As we have communicated in the past, and as many of you know from your work for charitable organizations, the time to make your year-end gifts and grants (from a donor-advised fund or DAF) is now. Since QCD checks must clear your IRA account by December 31st and transfers of securities (stocks, mutual funds, etc.) and grants from DAFs often take weeks to process, Schwab recommends making these requests by mid- to late-November to allow for processing by the end of the year. Please see a list of the most pertinent dates below and contact us if you have questions about other options.
- Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) checks: While Schwab doesn’t have a hard deadline for these, since the check MUST clear your IRA account in calendar year 2022 to count towards your 2022 required minimum distribution (“RMD”), the recommendation is to have all checks sent by November 15, 2022.
- Gifts of stock or mutual funds: Since these transfers can take anywhere from two to six weeks, Schwab recommends November 18, 2022 as the latest date to make the request. Please contact us for the appropriate form should you want to use this option.
- Grants from donor-advised funds (DAFs): Schwab recommends requesting all grants for 2022 by November 29, 2022. However, since you receive no tax deduction for these grants, there is a not a hard deadline for tax purposes.
As usual, we’ll be working with all of our RMD-age clients to ensure that distributions are completed ahead of year end, and we’re glad to assist you with any of these other approaching deadlines as you prefer, so please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have.