Retired last year for medical reasons and began receiving a set retirement amount from my TSP totaling 30K annually ($2500 per month). Taxes being held from TSP amount (22% tax bracket elected) so net is around $27K. Also in receipt of a gov't pension from which medical, taxes, long-term disability are being withheld thus netting approximately $27K annually as well. Beginning this year also qualified for Social Security Disability as medical disability considered total and permanent resulting in death sooner than later. SS benefit for me is around $2600 or $32K annually. I am 64. With gov't retirement, spousal benefits elected; I understand spouse would also receive Social Security upon my death. Is that a correct assumption given Spouse does work, taxes taken out of income, and plans to work at least until her minimum retirement age of 62? She is 6 years younger; income for Social Security benefit purposes is basically equivalent to mine of later year earnings but overall she might be considered the lower wage earner taking into consideration the 36 years of earnings that Social Security calculates on. We also have rental income of approximately $34K annually. File jointly and do complete Schedule E but having to defer rental expenses to future years based on joint income. No longer have dependents. We do have individual trusts. With this background, what might I expect from my own tax liability? Is there something tax-wise that I am not considering or missing given what I shared above that might prove helpful to me? Am I asking the right questions? Have not yet opted for tax withdrawal on Social Security Disability as this is my first year as such. Should I? At what estimated rate/amount? Would a better option be to file taxes separately at this point? Divide rental income equally between us or place onto one of us exclusively? It is understood you won't be able to provide specifics in this forum but either some general guidance/direction - or a response privately - would be appreciated. My death is immanent and I would like to leave spouse and dependents with some better understanding/planning for the future as far as tax implications from Turbo Tax/Intuit's perspective while I can. We do have an estate attorney but having guidance from different sources such as tax experts like TurboTax/Intuit and given we have always filed exclusively with TurboTax, hearing from TurboTax/Intuit is most appreciated. Thank you.
