Should I do a Roth conversion?

It depends entirely on which bracket you are in this year versus the ones you expect later, and converting too much is as costly a mistake as converting too little. Because we project your income across retirement, we can see which years a conversion is cheap and which years it isn’t.

I donate to my church every year. Is there a better way?

Very likely, if you are over 70½ and have an IRA. A qualified charitable distribution sends the money straight from your IRA to the charity, so it never counts as income to you. Writing a check from your bank account instead means you may have paid tax on that money first.

Does retiring lower my taxes automatically?

Not necessarily. Paychecks stop, but required withdrawals, pensions, and Social Security all arrive as taxable income, and some retirees land in a higher bracket than they expected. That’s worth modeling before you retire, not after.

A retiree reviewing tax and income planning documents at home

Tax Planning for Retirees

Your tax preparer looks back. We look forward.

A return filed in April reports on a year that is already over. Retirement tax planning runs the other direction, deciding years in advance which accounts you draw from and when. Those decisions shape the tax you pay for the rest of your retirement.

Most tax help stops at this year’s return

Typical tax preparation professionals are usually focused on the short term, such as solving this year’s tax issues. At Peterson Wealth Advisors, we see a much bigger picture.

The Perennial Income Model™ allows us to recognize, and even create, tax-saving opportunities five, ten, or even twenty years down the road. That’s because our tax planning process accurately projects decades’ worth of your retirement income. Using this, we’re able to help manage tax brackets, optimize Roth conversions, and maximize charitable donations to the causes you care about.

A tax preparer

Works on the year that has already ended
Solves this year’s tax issues
Sees one return at a time

Retirement tax planning

Projects decades of retirement income
Finds, and creates, tax savings years in advance
Coordinates taxes with Social Security and Medicare

Why a decades-long income projection lowers your tax bill

Once your income is mapped year by year, the low-tax years become visible. Those are the years worth using deliberately, and they are impossible to spot from a single return.

Manage your bracket
Decide which tax bracket you land in each year, rather than finding out in April.
Time Roth conversions
Convert in the years a conversion costs the least, and hold back in the years it doesn’t.
Give from the right account
Give to charity from the account that saves the most tax, not the most convenient one.
Sequence your withdrawals
Draw across taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts in the order that keeps your lifetime tax lowest.

The same projection is what lets us coordinate the rest of the plan: when you claim Social Security changes your taxable income, and your taxable income later sets your Medicare premiums.

How tax planning works each year

Project your income, year by year
Pensions, Social Security, required withdrawals and portfolio income are mapped across your retirement, not just the year ahead.
Find the low-tax years
The projection shows where your bracket dips, often the stretch between retiring and starting required withdrawals.
Use them deliberately
Roth conversions, charitable gifts and withdrawal order are sized to those years in an annual tax planning consultation.
File the return
Your annual return is prepared as part of the plan, so the planning and the filing are done by people looking at the same picture.

Where retirees most often overpay

Two situations come up again and again, and both are fixable in advance rather than in hindsight:

Giving cash to charity after age 70½
If you have an IRA and you donate, a qualified charitable distribution is usually the cheaper way to do it. How QCDs work.
Leaving a low-tax year unused
The gap between retiring and starting required withdrawals is often the lowest-tax stretch of your life, and it passes quietly if nobody is watching for it.

What’s included

Tax planning, as part of your plan

Have annual tax return prepared
Maximize charitable giving tax benefit
Conduct annual tax planning consultation
Reduce taxes over the long term

These pieces are not sold separately. They come together as one plan, for one transparent quarterly fee.

Questions retirees ask us about taxes

Both. Having your annual return prepared is part of what’s included, alongside an annual tax planning consultation that looks ahead rather than back.

Related webinars

Explore these sessions for deeper guidance on coordinating your retirement income plan.

The rest of your plan

No decision in retirement stands on its own. Here is how the other pieces fit together.

Find the years when your taxes are lowest

Bring your last return and a list of your accounts. In 15 minutes we can tell you whether there is a low-tax window you’re currently letting pass.

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