The free calculator
What is the IRS on track to collect from your IRA?
Type in your numbers and this shows three things: how much room is left in your bracket this year, what your required withdrawal looks like at 73 or 75, and what the tax on those withdrawals adds up to if you change nothing. It runs entirely in your browser — no login, nothing saved, nothing sent anywhere.
2026 federal figures. Estimates, not advice. The book explains every number on this page.
Your numbers
Nothing leaves your browser. Nothing is saved. Change anything and the results move with you.
Born 1962, so your required withdrawals start at 75 (born 1960 or later).
Everything pre-tax. Leave Roth and brokerage money out.
The book uses 6%. Nobody knows the real number — that is the point of running it both ways.
Pension, wages, interest, dividends, rents. Not Social Security — that goes below.
Left out of this year, and counted at 85% once the withdrawals start.
Michigan is a flat 4.25% and does not tax Social Security. A conversion is generally taxed at that rate in the year you convert.
This year · 2026
How much room is left in your bracket
Income counted
$60,000
Standard deduction
$32,200
Taxable income
$27,800
You are in the 12% bracket, with an estimated $2,840 of federal tax before any conversion.
Room to the top of 12%(bracket ends at $100,800)
$73,000
Room to the top of 22%(bracket ends at $211,400)
$183,600
Room to the top of 24%(bracket ends at $403,550)
$375,750
That is the “fill the bracket” number from chapter ten: the gap between your taxable income and the top of the bracket you are willing to pay. Converting uses up that room, and a conversion can also pull more of your Social Security into the taxable column — so leave yourself a margin, and check it with your preparer before you move money.
At age 75
What the IRS will require you to take
Projected balance at 75
$1,423,724
$750,000 growing at 6% for 11 years
First required withdrawal
$57,875
Balance ÷ 24.6 (Uniform Lifetime Table)
Added to your other income and 85% of your Social Security, that withdrawal puts about $82,375 of taxable income on the return — the 12% bracket, which runs to $100,800.
On track to pay the IRS · ages 75 to 90
$165,971
Required withdrawals totalling $1,383,095 at 12% — federal tax only, before state tax, and before anything your heirs would owe on what is left.
Medicare · IRMAA
Clear of the first IRMAA line.
Projected income of $117,875 stays under $218,000, with about $100,125 of clearance. Standard Part B for 2026 is $202.90 a month per person. Keep an eye on it in any year you convert: Medicare uses the return from two years earlier.
In plain English
Here is the shape of your situation. On a joint return with about $60,000 of income this year, you land at $27,800 of taxable income after the standard deduction. That leaves roughly $73,000 of room before you leave the 12% bracket, and about $184,000 before you top out the 22%. That second number is the one most people in your position use: it is how much you could convert this year without paying more than 22 cents on the dollar.
Now leave the IRA alone instead. At 6% a year, $750,000 grows to about $1.4 million by the time you turn 75, which is when the IRS starts requiring withdrawals. The first one is about $57,875 — that balance divided by 24.6 — whether you need the money or not, and every dollar of it is ordinary income. Stacked on your other income it lands in the 12% bracket.
From 75 to 90 those required withdrawals add up to about $1.4 million. At 12%, the federal tax alone is roughly $166,000. That is not a penalty and it is not a mistake. That is just the tax bill, paid exactly the way the IRS would like you to pay it.
Your projected income at that point stays under the first Medicare surcharge line, with about $100,000 of clearance. Worth watching: a single dollar over that line means the full tier for the whole year, per spouse.
Michigan generally taxes the amount you convert at its flat 4.25% in the year you convert — on $184,000 that is about $7,803. Confirm with your preparer how the retirement subtraction applies to your return. The real case for converting is federal anyway: the brackets, the widow's penalty, Medicare, and what your kids inherit.
Your numbers are different from the example in the book. Maybe more, maybe less. But the shape is the same for everyone, and the window is open right now. Every year you wait, it is a year shorter.
— Dan Casey
What this calculator assumes
- • 2026 federal brackets and standard deductions, held flat for every future year. Single $50,400 / joint $100,800 tops the 12% bracket.
- • The age-65 addition to the standard deduction where it applies; on a joint return both spouses are treated as the same side of 65.
- • The temporary $6,000-per-person senior deduction (2025–2028) is left out, so your real headroom may be a little larger.
- • Your other income stays where it is today; 85% of Social Security is treated as taxable in the withdrawal years, which is where most of these households land.
- • Required withdrawals use the Uniform Lifetime Table divisors through age 90, with the balance growing at the rate you chose.
- • The lifetime tax figure applies that one marginal rate to every future withdrawal. It is a scale, not a tax return.
- • State tax is shown only as a note, and only for Michigan.
Estimates only, from the numbers you typed, using 2026 federal figures that change every year. This is education, not tax, legal, or investment advice, and it is not a recommendation for your situation. Talk to a qualified tax professional before you convert anything.
The free Retirement Tax Review
See what a 10-year conversion plan could do for you.
If you’re 55 or older with at least $300,000 saved, I’d like to invite you to a free 30-minute Zoom review with me or one of my staff. It’s not a sales call. Nobody’s going to pitch you a product. It’s the same review we do for clients.
- 1
We’ll run your actual accounts and show what the IRS is currently on track to collect from them.
- 2
We’ll map your income gap month by month and show you how much of your life is currently riding on market returns.
- 3
We’ll look at your window, how many years you have and what moving money through it could be worth in your brackets.
- 4
You’ll leave with a written Retirement Roadmap, a real document with the numbers and the options laid out. That’s yours to keep whether we ever talk again or not.
No jargon, no pressure. You’ll understand your own situation better in 30 minutes than most people do after years of statements. Book at panicproofroth.com, or call 844-44-PANIC — nine to five eastern, monday through friday. Our office is in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.