Find out whether your income adds a surcharge to your Medicare premium.
Above a certain income, Social Security adds an amount to both your Part B and Part D premiums. It is called IRMAA, it is decided by your tax return from two years ago, and it arrives as a notice most people are not expecting. Enter one figure and you will see exactly where you land — and how much room there is before the next threshold.
This tool gives a plain-English estimate using the 2026 brackets and your 2024 income. It is not a bill or an official determination — Social Security decides the actual amount from the figure the IRS reports to them.
Enter an income figure to see where it lands.
The brackets below are the 2026 figures. Your 2024 return is what decides which row applies to you.
Part B premium
Doctor and hospital coverage
$202.90 /month
The standard premium, with nothing added
Part D surcharge
Prescription drug coverage
$0.00 /month
Nothing added to your drug plan premium
2026 brackets · Single, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse
| 2024 income | Part B | Part D |
|---|---|---|
| $109,000 or less | $202.90 | — |
| $109,001 – $137,000 | $284.10 | + $14.50 |
| $137,001 – $171,000 | $405.80 | + $37.50 |
| $171,001 – $205,000 | $527.50 | + $60.40 |
| $205,001 – $499,999 | $649.20 | + $83.30 |
| $500,000 and above | $689.90 | + $91.00 |
Part B figures are the full monthly premium. Part D figures are the surcharge only — added to whatever your chosen drug plan charges, and billed by Medicare rather than by the plan. Ranges are shown to the dollar because the brackets genuinely work that way.
Your 2026 premium is set by your 2024 tax return.
Social Security looks back two years, because that is the most recent return the IRS has finished processing when premiums are set. So a year with an unusually high income — a house sale, a large distribution, a final year of full-time work — shows up on your premium two years later, often long after you had stopped thinking about it. It also means the surcharge falls away on its own once a normal year works through the same two-year lag.
One exception worth knowing: if your 2024 return has not been processed when premiums are set, Social Security falls back to the year before it. If that applies to you, the figure above is being compared against the wrong return.
If your income has since dropped, there is a form for that.
Social Security will reconsider the surcharge when a specific life-changing event caused the drop. It recognises eight: the death of a spouse, marriage, divorce or annulment, work stoppage, work reduction, loss of income-producing property, loss of an employer pension, and a settlement payment from a current or former employer. The form is SSA-44, “Medicare Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount – Life-Changing Event”, and it is filed with Social Security along with evidence of the change.
Worth knowing that a merely lower income does not qualify on its own — the reduction has to trace to one of the listed events. Retiring is the one that applies to most people who land here, and it is also the one most often left unfiled because nobody mentions it.
Terms that came up
This is a plain-English estimate, not a bill and not a determination. Social Security decides what any surcharge actually is, using the income figure the IRS reported to them — which may differ from what you entered here, and which uses a modified adjusted gross income that adds back tax-exempt interest and certain other items. Figures use the 2026 brackets published by CMS, November 2025 release, effective 2026 (2024 MAGI), and they change annually. If you are billed a surcharge you did not expect, Social Security sends a notice explaining which return it used — start there rather than here. Confirm your own position with Social Security before acting on anything above.
Talk through what this means for your plan choice
A surcharge does not change which plan is right for you, but it does change what the whole year costs — and that is worth having on the table before you choose one.
Erekle Niniashvili
Independent Medicare Broker
- Licensed in 25 states
- NJ · NY · PA + 22 more states
Want me to look at this alongside your actual plan costs?
Send it over and I will tell you what I see — including whether an SSA-44 is worth filing, and what the surcharge does to the total cost of the plans you are weighing.
Rather skip the form?
Nothing you enter here is sent anywhere. Your income figure stays in your browser unless you choose to send it to me at the end.