The short answer
The IRMAA income brackets for 2026 start above 109,000 dollars of MAGI for individual filers and 218,000 dollars for joint filers. Five surcharge steps sit above those lines, adding 81.20 to 487.00 dollars a month to Part B in 2026 and 14.50 to 91.00 dollars to Part D, based on your 2024 tax return.
Plan year 2026. Every figure on this page is the 2026 value, read from Social Security's higher-income premium chart and CMS's 2026 fact sheet on August 7, 2026. The brackets change on a yearly cycle, and this page tracks the current plan year only.
Say your income sits just above one of the lines. The surcharge that follows is a fixed step, not a slice of the overage. It arrives on a premium notice rather than a tax bill, which is why most people meet it as a surprise.
What are the IRMAA income brackets this year?
The 2026 IRMAA brackets start at 109,000 dollars of MAGI for individual filers and 218,000 dollars for joint filers, per Social Security's 2026 chart, with four more brackets above each. Call it the Doubled Ladder, with an asterisk: the joint bounds double the individual bounds at every rung but the last.
The Doubled Ladder is an observation of the government's own table, and its asterisk is the honest part. The individual rungs in 2026 sit at 109,000, 137,000, 171,000, 205,000, and 500,000 dollars; the joint rungs at 218,000, 274,000, 342,000, 410,000, and 750,000.
The first four pairs double exactly. The top pair does not: 750,000 is less than twice 500,000. The table is the government's. The observation, asterisk included, is ours.
Here is the whole 2026 ladder, with what each rung adds to your Part B premium.
| Your income, filing individually | Filing jointly | Added to your Part B premium |
|---|---|---|
| 109,000 dollars or less | 218,000 dollars or less | Nothing |
| Above 109,000 up to 137,000 | Above 218,000 up to 274,000 | 81.20 dollars |
| Above 137,000 up to 171,000 | Above 274,000 up to 342,000 | 202.90 dollars |
| Above 171,000 up to 205,000 | Above 342,000 up to 410,000 | 324.60 dollars |
| Above 205,000, under 500,000 | Above 410,000, under 750,000 | 446.30 dollars |
| 500,000 dollars and above | 750,000 dollars and above | 487.00 dollars |
Every amount in that last column is added to the standard premium of 202.90 dollars in 2026, and every figure in it is a 2026 plan year value. Read down the column you file under, not across.
IRMAA stands for income-related monthly adjustment amount: an addition the law requires to Part B and Medicare drug coverage premiums at higher incomes. It touches a minority: roughly 8 percent of people with Part B, per CMS's 2026 fact sheet.
Married people who file separately have their own two-tier structure above the individual threshold, at the two highest surcharge levels.
What income counts toward IRMAA?
The income that counts toward IRMAA is MAGI, modified adjusted gross income, which Social Security defines as your total adjusted gross income plus tax-exempt interest income. The definition reaches wider than taxable income, because interest that is tax-exempt on your return still counts toward the brackets.
Anything that lands in adjusted gross income feeds the number. One example with its own companion article: amounts converted from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA are included in gross income for the year of the conversion, under the IRS's own rule in Publication 590-A.
What can keep income out of MAGI, and the planning arithmetic around it, belongs to the companion article on planning income around IRMAA.
Which year's income determines my IRMAA?
Your 2026 IRMAA is determined by the most recent federal tax return the IRS gives Social Security, generally the return filed in 2025 for tax year 2024. The two year gap between earning and billing is structural: tax data reaches Social Security on the filing cycle, one year to file and one to price.
Sometimes the IRS provides an older return, one filed in 2024 for tax year 2023. If that happened and you filed for 2024, or did not need to file, Social Security's own instruction is to call or visit a local office so the records get updated.
The determination arrives in writing: Social Security sends a letter with the premium amounts and the reason. If you hold both Part B and drug coverage, both carry the adjustment.
How much is the Part B and Part D surcharge?
The 2026 surcharges rise by bracket, per the government's 2026 tables. In 2026 Part B adds between 81.20 and 487.00 dollars a month to the 202.90 dollar standard premium. Part D adds between 14.50 and 91.00 dollars a month on top of the plan premium in 2026.
Step by step in 2026, the five Part B additions are 81.20, 202.90, 324.60, 446.30, and 487.00 dollars a month, and the five Part D additions are 14.50, 37.50, 60.40, 83.30, and 91.00 dollars.
The percentages behind the dollars explain the shape. Most beneficiaries pay about 25 percent of Part B's real cost, with the government paying about 75. The brackets move higher earners to 35, 50, 65, 80, or 85 percent of the total cost.
The Part D version rides the national base beneficiary premium rather than your own plan's price, and it is deducted from Social Security payments regardless of how you pay the plan premium. Without sufficient Social Security payments, it arrives as its own bill, from CMS or the Railroad Retirement Board, and for the billed it comes monthly, while billed Part B runs every 3 months.
How do I avoid or reduce IRMAA?
Avoiding IRMAA structurally means MAGI at or under the bracket bounds, and the law simply does not apply below the thresholds, 109,000 dollars individual or 218,000 dollars joint in 2026. Reduction after the fact runs on defined paths: a life-changing event, an amended return, or wrong IRS data.
Each path is narrow and documented. A life-changing event, like retirement or a spouse's death, supports a request for a new decision. An amended return, shown to Social Security with the IRS acknowledgment, corrects the record. A MAGI figure you believe the IRS reported wrongly gets corrected with the IRS itself.
The planning side, what moves income between years and what keeps it out of MAGI entirely, is the territory of the two companion planning articles. This publication explains the mechanics and stops there; the decisions belong to you and your tax professional.
Can I appeal IRMAA after a life-changing event?
A life-changing event does not need an appeal: it is a request for a new decision, filed on form SSA-44 with proof of the event and the income drop. Social Security's list includes marriage, divorce, a spouse's death, stopping or reducing work, and an employer settlement.
The full list runs seven situations deep. Marriage; divorce; death of a spouse; you or your spouse stopping work or reducing hours; loss of income-producing property from a disaster or event beyond your control; an employer pension plan's cessation, termination, or reorganization; and an employer settlement from closure, bankruptcy, or reorganization.
Disagreeing with the determination itself is the true appeal, filed online or on form SSA-561-U2, the Request for Reconsideration. The full walkthrough, forms, proof, and timelines, is the companion article on appealing with a life-changing event.
What changed this year
Every bracket on this page is a 2026 plan year value, and the thresholds moved up for the year. The first rung rose, the top surcharge rose, and one line for people filing separately moved the other way. Each figure below carries the year it belongs to.
The first threshold is 109,000 dollars on an individual return and 218,000 dollars on a joint return in 2026. In 2025 those were 106,000 dollars and 212,000 dollars.
The top of the ladder moved too. The highest Part B adjustment is 487.00 dollars a month in 2026, on a total premium of 689.90 dollars, where in 2025 it was 443.90 dollars on a total of 628.90 dollars.
One line went the other way. For someone married, living with their spouse, and filing separately, the top band starts at 391,000 dollars in 2026 where it started at 394,000 dollars in 2025.
Source: the CMS fact sheets of November 14, 2025 and November 8, 2024.
What this means for you
The IRMAA brackets are a 2026 fact set with a two year fuse: five steps per filing status, fixed dollar surcharges per step, measured against a MAGI from tax year 2024. Everything on this page resets each plan year, and the companion articles carry the mechanics the brackets only imply.
Read the lookback article for the timing, the cliff article for the bracket edges, and the appeal article if a notice already arrived that your life no longer matches.
FAQ
What percentage of people pay IRMAA?
Roughly 8 percent, on both sides of the program. CMS's 2026 fact sheet states that the income-related monthly adjustment amounts affect roughly 8 percent of people with Medicare Part B, and approximately 8 percent of people with Part D pay the drug-coverage version.
The small share explains why so many people first meet IRMAA as a surprise on a premium notice rather than as common knowledge.
For about nine in ten beneficiaries, the standard premium is simply the premium, and the law, in Social Security's own words, does not apply below the thresholds. For the minority above them, the surcharge arrives with a letter stating the amounts and the reason.
Is IRMAA a tax or a premium?
Structurally, it is a premium adjustment required by law. Social Security's page opens with exactly that framing: the law requires an adjustment to your monthly Part B and drug coverage premiums at higher incomes.
The percentage mechanics make the design visible: most beneficiaries pay about 25 percent of Part B's true cost, with the government covering about 75 percent, and the brackets move higher-income beneficiaries to 35, 50, 65, 80, or 85 percent of the total cost.
So IRMAA is best understood as a reduction of the subsidy rather than a new levy: the coverage is identical in every bracket, and what changes is how much of its real cost you carry.
How do I know which bracket I am in?
Social Security tells you, in writing. The determination letter states your premium amounts and the reason, and the input behind it is the most recent federal tax return the IRS provided, generally the return filed in 2025 for tax year 2024 when setting 2026 amounts.
Checking the letter against the published chart takes one line: find your filing status, find the MAGI row your 2024 return lands in, and read across to the Part B and Part D additions. The chart lives on Social Security's higher-income premium page, the same one this article's figures were read from on August 7, 2026.
What if Social Security used the wrong year's return?
Two fixes exist, and neither is technically an appeal. If the IRS supplied an older return, one filed in 2024 for tax year 2023, and you filed for 2024 or did not need to, Social Security's instruction is to call or visit a local office so the records update.
If the return itself was amended, show Social Security a copy of the amended return along with the acknowledgment receipt from the IRS, and the adjustment is corrected or removed as appropriate. The phone route for amended returns is 1-800-772-1213. Only a disagreement with the determination itself requires the formal reconsideration path, form SSA-561-U2.
Does tax-exempt interest really count toward IRMAA?
Yes, by definition. Social Security defines MAGI for this purpose as total adjusted gross income plus tax-exempt interest income, so interest that owes no income tax on your return still climbs the IRMAA ladder.
This is the detail that most often separates a taxpayer's mental math from Social Security's letter, because a portfolio arranged to minimize taxable income can still carry a MAGI above a bracket bound.
The practical reading: when estimating your own bracket, add the tax-exempt interest line back before comparing against the 2026 bounds of 109,000 dollars individual and 218,000 dollars joint. The definition is the reason. MAGI is your adjusted gross income plus tax-exempt interest (G3), so interest that is invisible on your tax bill is fully visible to this calculation.
