Your Last Tax Return Together 🛑

Here's the big issue. If you're married, the year you die, your surviving spouse gets to claim the same tax bracket as married filing joint. So if your spouse dies in March, even when you file your tax return at the end of the year, you get to claim the whole year as married filing joint. Now, the tax bracket that is just perfect for Roth conversions, and this is Matt's crème de la crème, is the 24% tax bracket. That is my favorite tax bracket because at 24%, a married couple can convert money to Roth up to $400,000. But the year after your spouse dies, that's cut in half. Your tax bracket goes down to $200,000. If you know that's the case, and remember, we got to make up for Social Security. We want to go to those retirement accounts. Wouldn't you rather have more money in Roth? So you're in a sweet spot at that $400,000 tax bracket level, and you either got to start taking advantage of it now or when your spouse dies in that year.