IRMAA Certified Planner and Nebraska Society of CPAs Team Up to Deliver Medicare IRMAA Tax Workshops

Lincoln, NE – April 9, 2025 – IRMAA Certified Planner announced a new joint effort with the Nebraska Society of CPAs (NESCPA) to deliver a series of exclusive workshops for NESCPA members focused on the complexities and planning strategies surrounding the Medicare IRMAA (Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount) tax.

With growing concern among retirees and pre-retirees about rising Medicare costs, the collaboration brought timely and practical education to Nebraska CPAs eager to enhance their knowledge and expand their financial planning skill set.

The online workshops launched in spring 2025 and provided in-depth training on how to identify, analyze, and mitigate IRMAA surcharges through various financial planning strategies, including Roth conversions, income timing, and the use of tax-efficient investment vehicles. The sessions were designed to help CPAs deliver more value to their clients by proactively managing healthcare-related tax costs in retirement.

The initiative reflected a shared commitment to professional development, client education, and addressing the evolving needs of today's financial professionals.

The workshop series was built around a practical premise: CPAs already see the tax returns that determine IRMAA, so they are ideally positioned to help clients avoid the surcharge before it lands. Each online session walked NESCPA members through the full lifecycle of an IRMAA problem, from identification to mitigation.

• Identifying IRMAA exposure: Reading a client's modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) against the current IRMAA brackets to see who will be surcharged two years down the road.
• Analyzing the drivers: Understanding how one-time income events — large capital gains, required minimum distributions, business sales — push clients over bracket thresholds.
• Roth conversions: Weighing the tradeoff between paying conversion taxes today and reducing the future taxable income that triggers IRMAA in retirement.
• Income timing: Sequencing withdrawals, gains, and other income recognition so that no single year spikes MAGI past a threshold.
• Tax-efficient investment vehicles: Positioning assets so that growth and income are less likely to inflate the MAGI figure the Social Security Administration looks at.

Because IRMAA is assessed on income from two years prior, the planning window matters enormously. A CPA reviewing a 2025 return is effectively looking at the inputs for a client's 2027 Medicare premiums — which is exactly the kind of forward-looking insight the workshops were designed to sharpen. For a full walkthrough of that mechanism, see how IRMAA is calculated.

"We're thrilled to work with the Nebraska Society of CPAs to bring this critical training to their members," said Paul Morrison, co-founder of IRMAA Certified Planner.

"Helping our members stay ahead of key tax planning issues is central to our mission," said Joni Sundquist, president and executive director of the Nebraska Society of CPAs. "Our collaboration with IRMAA Certified Planner offers Nebraska CPAs an important opportunity to deepen their understanding of Medicare-related tax impacts and better serve clients who are navigating retirement and rising healthcare costs."

The partnership tapped into a broader shift in the profession. IRMAA sits at the intersection of tax preparation and retirement planning: it is triggered entirely by figures on a tax return, yet it shows up as a healthcare cost that most clients never see coming until a letter from the Social Security Administration arrives.

Three features of IRMAA make it especially well suited to CPA-led planning:

• The two-year lookback. Medicare premiums in any given year are based on MAGI from two years earlier. That means the surcharge is often locked in long before the client realizes it — but it also means a CPA who plans ahead has a genuine two-year runway to act.
• Cliff thresholds. IRMAA brackets are cliffs, not phase-ins. Crossing a threshold by even one dollar of MAGI triggers the full surcharge tier for both Part B and Part D premiums, which makes precise income management unusually valuable.
• An appeal process tied to life events. Clients who retire, lose a spouse, divorce, or experience other qualifying life-changing events can request a reduction using Form SSA-44 — but many never learn the option exists. CPAs who understand the IRMAA appeal process can deliver immediate, tangible savings.

For CPAs whose clients are approaching age 63 — the first year whose income affects Medicare premiums at 65 — strategies like managing MAGI become a natural extension of the annual tax review. Practical approaches are covered in our guide on how to reduce MAGI.

About IRMAA Certified Planner

At the time of the announcement, IRMAA Certified Planner was a leading provider of specialized education and tools for financial professionals seeking to navigate the Medicare IRMAA tax. The organization offered certification programs, software, and training designed to help advisors optimize retirement income strategies while minimizing avoidable Medicare surcharges. That body of work — the planning methodology, the software, and the educational resources — continues today under RetirementAdvisorPro.

About the Nebraska Society of CPAs

The Nebraska Society of CPAs is a statewide professional organization representing approximately 2,600 CPAs across the state. The organization provides educational programming, legislative and regulatory advocacy, networking opportunities, and additional resources to enhance the value and influence of the CPA profession in Nebraska. Learn more at nescpa.org.

The original announcement listed Mark Annese, co-founder of IRMAA Certified Planner, and Joni Sundquist, president and executive director of the Nebraska Society of CPAs, as the contacts for media inquiries and workshop registration.

The Nebraska workshops were an early example of a trend that has only accelerated: professional societies bringing Medicare surcharge planning into mainstream continuing education. IRMAA is no longer a niche topic for Medicare specialists — it is a recurring line item in retirement income planning for any client whose income approaches the annual bracket thresholds.

For CPAs and financial advisors who want to build the same capability the workshop series taught, the core skills remain the same: know the current brackets, project client MAGI two years forward, model the impact of Roth conversions and income timing, and know when a life-changing event opens the door to an appeal.

RetirementAdvisorPro carries that work forward with software that lets advisors model IRMAA exposure, bracket proximity, and multi-year income strategies for their clients — the same planning discipline the Nebraska workshops were built to teach.