How the tax torpedo works
Up to 85% of Social Security benefits can be taxable, and how much depends on your provisional income: your other income before counting any benefits, plus tax-exempt interest, plus half of your benefits. Below $25,000 for a single filer, or $32,000 for a married couple filing jointly, none of the benefit is taxable. Between those thresholds and $34,000 or $44,000, each extra dollar of provisional income makes 50 cents of benefits taxable. Above the second threshold, each extra dollar makes 85 cents taxable, until 85% of your benefits are in income.
That second tier is the torpedo. A $1,000 IRA withdrawal in the 85% zone adds $1,850 to taxable income: the $1,000 itself plus $850 of newly taxable benefits. Multiply by your bracket to get the real cost: 1.85 × 12% is 22.2%, and 1.85 × 22% is 40.7%. Once 85% of benefits are taxable, the extra layer disappears and your rate falls back to your bracket, which is why the effect looks like a hump on a chart of marginal tax rates.
The rules sit in section 86 of the tax code, and IRS Publication 915 has the worksheet that applies them.
Why the torpedo is growing, and what 2026 changed
The $25,000 and $32,000 thresholds date from 1984, when benefits first became taxable, and the $34,000 and $44,000 tier was added for 1994. None of them is indexed for inflation or wage growth, while benefits rise with cost-of-living adjustments, including 2.8% for 2026. A retiree whose income merely keeps pace with prices therefore drifts deeper into the phase-in range over time.
The 2026 deductions soften the blow without changing the formula. A single filer 65 or older gets the $16,100 standard deduction, a $2,050 age-65 addition and, through 2028 and with MAGI under $75,000, the full $6,000 senior deduction: $24,150 in all. That can leave little or no tax on income in the 50% tier. But the senior deduction lowers taxable income only after taxable benefits are figured, so it does nothing to provisional income, and the 85% tier can still bite.
Who hits the torpedo zone, and what triggers it
The zone usually appears in the late 60s and 70s, once benefits have started and pre-tax accounts begin paying out. Middle-income retirees are most exposed: with little other income you never reach the 85% tier, and with a lot, your benefits are already 85% taxable. Filing status matters too. A surviving spouse who files as single faces the lower single thresholds, one of the drivers of the widow’s penalty, and married couples filing separately who lived together at any point in the year get no threshold at all.
If your income straddles the 0% capital gains band, the damage compounds: each extra ordinary dollar can also push $1.85 of gains from 0% into the 15% rate, so the combined marginal rate can approach 50%. Anything that raises provisional income can set the torpedo off, including income you save rather than spend.
- Traditional IRA and 401(k) withdrawals, including required minimum distributions, which grow as a share of the balance with age.
- Roth conversions, which count as ordinary income in the year you convert.
- Pensions, part-time wages, taxable interest and dividends.
- Realized capital gains, including gains that would otherwise sit in the 0% long-term capital gains band.
- Tax-exempt municipal bond interest, which is added back even though it is not taxed itself.
- Not counted: qualified Roth IRA withdrawals, QCDs and HSA withdrawals for medical costs.
How to avoid or shrink the tax torpedo
Because the torpedo is a range rather than a cliff, the aim is to put less income inside it or to pass through it in fewer years. The usual levers move taxable income into years before benefits start, or replace taxable withdrawals with money that does not count. Test any of them against your whole plan, since a move that clears the torpedo can still cross an IRMAA tier two years later.
- Roth conversions before you claim Social Security, while benefits are not yet in the formula, so later RMDs are smaller.
- Claiming later with delayed retirement credits while living on IRA withdrawals in your 60s, which shrinks later pre-tax income.
- Giving through qualified charitable distributions from age 70½, which satisfy RMDs without adding to income.
- Mixing sources: drawing from Roth or taxable accounts in years a pre-tax withdrawal would land in the 85% tier.
- Taking a larger pre-tax withdrawal in one year to clear the 85% cap, rather than many years at a torpedo rate.
Illustrative numbers
A single retiree, 67, with $30,000 of Social Security in 2026
- Bracket rate
- Your ordinary federal rate, such as 12% or 22% in 2026
- Benefits made taxable per $1
- 0.50 in the 50% tier, 0.85 in the 85% tier, and 0 once 85% of benefits are taxable
With benefits of at least $9,000 (single) or $12,000 (joint), the 85% tier ends when other income reaches about $28,706 or $36,941 plus half of benefits.
Social Security benefits$30,000
Traditional IRA withdrawals$30,000
Provisional income ($30,000 + half of benefits)$45,000
Taxable Social Security (Publication 915 worksheet)$13,850
Taxable income after $24,150 of 2026 deductions$19,700, in the 12% bracket
An extra $1,000 IRA withdrawal adds taxable benefits of$850
Extra federal tax on that $1,000$222, a 22.2% marginal rate
The retiree sits in the 12% bracket but pays 22.2 cents on each extra IRA dollar, because every dollar pulls 85 cents of Social Security into tax. The effect ends once 85% of benefits are taxable, at about $43,700 of IRA income, and the rate then drops back to 12%.
At a glance
Federal marginal rate on $1 more of ordinary income, by Social Security phase-in tier
| Tier | Provisional income, single / joint | Benefits taxed per extra $1 | At 12% bracket | At 22% bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No benefits taxable | Up to $25,000 / $32,000 | $0 | 12% | 22% |
| 50% tier | $25,000–$34,000 / $32,000–$44,000 | $0.50 | 18% | 33% |
| 85% tier (the torpedo) | Above $34,000 / $44,000, until the 85% cap | $0.85 | 22.2% | 40.7% |
| Past the 85% cap | Other income above about $28,706 / $36,941 plus half of benefits | $0 | 12% | 22% |
Put it in your plan
Tax Torpedo in MoneyWhatIf
On MoneyWhatIf’s Taxes page, the tax map sweeps extra ordinary income through a selected year in $1,000 steps up to $300,000 and draws the all-in marginal rate, including the taxable share of Social Security each added dollar drags in, long-term gains pushed off their 0% rung and the NIIT. In the projection, the tax worksheet is recomputed after a withdrawal or sale changes income, so newly taxable benefits are counted. The Tax planning page reruns the whole plan at six Roth conversion bracket targets and, for the one you select, charts the yearly change in tax against converting nothing.
Common questions
Tax Torpedo FAQs
Is the tax torpedo an actual tax?
No. It is an informal nickname for an interaction, not a separate tax, and the term does not appear in the tax code. You pay ordinary income tax at your normal bracket rates; the torpedo is the side effect that each extra dollar of income can also make up to 85 cents of benefits taxable, so your effective marginal rate runs above your bracket.
Does 85% of Social Security being taxable mean an 85% tax rate?
No. 85% is the most of your benefits that can be included in taxable income. That included amount is then taxed at your ordinary rates, so a retiree in the 22% bracket with the full 85% included pays tax equal to at most about 18.7% of benefits. The torpedo is about the rate on the next dollar, not on the benefit itself.
At what income does the tax torpedo start and end?
It depends on your benefit. The steep 85% tier starts when provisional income passes $34,000 for a single filer or $44,000 on a joint return, and ends when other income reaches about $28,706 or $36,941 plus half of benefits. For a single retiree with $30,000 of benefits, that is roughly $19,000 to $43,700 of other income; for a couple with $48,000, roughly $20,000 to $60,900. The milder 50% tier begins earlier, at $25,000 or $32,000.
Can a Roth conversion trigger the tax torpedo?
Yes, once you are collecting Social Security. A conversion is ordinary income, so each converted dollar in the 85% tier also makes 85 cents of benefits taxable, costing 22.2% in the 12% bracket. Converting before you claim avoids that, because no benefits are in the formula yet. After claiming, a conversion big enough to carry you past the 85% cap can still pay off if the alternative is years of RMDs taxed inside the zone.