2026 edition · every figure cited to the Federal Register and SSA program manual · part of Clear Money Guide’s Roth conversion series: what a conversion costs · state taxes on conversions · is it worth it?
Updated July 25, 2026. Quick answer: Yes — if a conversion pushes your MAGI over $109,000 (single) or $218,000 (joint), your Medicare premiums jump two years later: 2026 conversion income sets 2028 premiums (20 C.F.R. §418.1135). These are cliffs, not phase-outs — crossing a threshold by $1 triggers the full tier surcharge, from +$95.70 to +$578.00 per month per enrollee once Part D is counted. And no, it does not qualify for life-changing-event relief: SSA’s own manual explicitly lists “conversion of an IRA” as a non-qualifying event for premium relief.
Related reading on this site: Form SSA-44 and IRMAA relief.
Related guides on this topic: No FICA Wages? The Roth Catch-Up Rule Does Not Reach You, Roth Conversions and the ACA Subsidy Cliff (2026) and Conversions and College Financial Aid (2026).
Which year these figures belong to
The 2026 standard Part B premium is $202.90 (90 FR 52063, Nov. 2025), up from $185.00 in 2025 and $174.70 in 2024 (CMS 2024 fact sheet). The 2026 first tier starts above $109,000 single / $218,000 joint, compared with $106,000 single in 2025 (SSA POMS HI 01101.020). If an IRMAA figure elsewhere does not match the tables below, it may describe a different year.
The 2026 IRMAA tiers (per enrollee, per month)
Single, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse
| 2026 MAGI | Part B premium /mo | Part D add-on /mo |
|---|---|---|
| Up to $109,000 | $202.90 | — |
| $109,000 – $137,000 | $284.10 | $14.50 |
| $137,000 – $171,000 | $405.80 | $37.50 |
| $171,000 – $205,000 | $527.50 | $60.40 |
| $205,000 – $500,000 | $649.20 | $83.30 |
| $500,000 or more | $689.90 | $91.00 |
Married filing jointly
| 2026 MAGI | Part B premium /mo | Part D add-on /mo |
|---|---|---|
| Up to $218,000 | $202.90 | — |
| $218,000 – $274,000 | $284.10 | $14.50 |
| $274,000 – $342,000 | $405.80 | $37.50 |
| $342,000 – $410,000 | $527.50 | $60.40 |
| $410,000 – $750,000 | $649.20 | $83.30 |
| $750,000 or more | $689.90 | $91.00 |
The married-filing-separately trap: MFS filers who lived with their spouse at any point in the year skip the middle tiers entirely — MAGI over $109,000 jumps straight to $649.20/mo Part B (plus $83.30 Part D), and $391,000 or more to the top tier. For a couple weighing MFS to isolate one spouse’s conversion, this quirk usually destroys the math. (Source for all tiers: 90 FR 52063–52074; SSA POMS HI 01101.020.)
The two-year lag — and why the IRMAA clock starts at 63
Premiums for any year are set from your tax return of two years prior (20 C.F.R. §418.1135; Social Security Act §1839(i)(4)): your 2026 premiums come from your 2024 return, and a 2026 conversion shows up in your 2028 premiums. The planning consequence almost nobody states: if you enroll in Medicare at 65, the first return that can hurt you is the one you file for the year you turn 63. Conversions completed in the year you turn 62 or earlier do not enter the two-year lookback for premiums at 65, except where SSA temporarily uses a return from three years earlier because the IRS has not supplied the two-years-earlier return (20 C.F.R. §418.1135(b)).
Check your cliff before you convert
2026 IRMAA cliff checker
Price the conversion before you make it
A conversion cannot be undone once it is done, so it is worth having someone model the bracket it fills, the knock-on effects on your other income and how long the money has to compound before you settle on an amount.
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The new $6,000 senior deduction will not protect you
A tempting 2026 error: assuming OBBBA’s $6,000-per-person senior deduction (2025–2028) offsets conversion income for IRMAA purposes. It cannot. The deduction lives in IRC §151(d)(5)(C), which is below the line — §62(a)’s definition of AGI does not include it, so it reduces taxable income but never AGI. IRMAA MAGI is AGI plus tax-exempt interest (POMS HI 01101.010), so the deduction is invisible to Medicare. It also phases out at 6% of MAGI above $75,000 single / $150,000 joint — which a conversion accelerates — a double effect our income-tax coverage of conversions prices in.
A conversion is not a life-changing event for IRMAA
Form SSA-44 relief exists only for eight life-changing events — marriage, divorce, a spouse’s death, work stoppage or reduction, loss of income-producing property, loss of pension income, or an employer settlement. An income spike is not on the list, and SSA’s manual (POMS HI 01120.005) names “conversion of an IRA” explicitly among non-qualifying events, alongside capital gains and lottery winnings. The surcharge lasts one premium year and disappears when the high-MAGI year rolls out of the lookback — a 2026 conversion means higher premiums in 2028 and normal ones in 2029, assuming 2027 income returns to baseline.
What this means for conversion strategy
Three rules fall out of the arithmetic: (1) Convert to the cliff, not through it — the checker above shows your headroom; leaving $1,000 of headroom costs nothing, while overshooting a cliff by $1,000 can cost $580.80 to $1,736.40 per person for the premium year, depending on which single or joint cliff is crossed (Part B and Part D combined). (2) Front-load before 63 where possible: conversions before the year you turn 63 fall outside the two-year lookback for premiums at 65, subject to the three-year fallback in 20 C.F.R. §418.1135(b). (3) Price the surcharge as a one-year tax, not a catastrophe — a single-tier breach costs a couple about $2,300 (both enrolled, first tier); sometimes paying it deliberately in one big conversion year beats grazing a cliff for five consecutive years. Sequencing multiple years of conversions around cliffs, brackets, and state tax simultaneously is exactly the problem worth an hour with a professional:
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Suggested citation: Clear Money Guide, “Will a Roth Conversion Raise Your Medicare Premiums? (2026 edition),” clearmoneyguide.com/roth-conversion-irmaa/. Free to cite with attribution and a link. Figures verified July 25, 2026 against the Federal Register and SSA POMS.
Figures verified against 90 FR 52063, SSA POMS HI 01101.020, HI 01101.010 and HI 01120.005, 20 C.F.R. 418.1135 and 418.1205, 26 U.S.C. 62 and 151, P.L. 119-21 and the CMS 2024 Part B fact sheet on September 29, 2026.
Primary sources
Run your own numbers. Roth conversion guardrail estimator — find the bracket ceiling for this year.