{"id":1202,"date":"2026-02-22T10:49:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T17:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/?p=1202"},"modified":"2026-02-22T10:49:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T17:49:33","slug":"the-us-governments-secret-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/2026\/02\/22\/the-us-governments-secret-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Government\u2019s Secret Tax"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/moneywise.com\/retirement\/the-us-governments-secret-tax-that-will-lower-your-social-security-checks-in-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The US government\u2019s secret tax that will lower your Social Security checks in 2026 (and beyond). Prepare for it now<\/strong><\/a> is the title of an article by Moneywise by Vishesh Raisinghani Feb 15, 2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost retirees expect their Social Security benefits to rise each year. After all, that\u2019s what the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) is designed for (1). On paper, this annual increase is meant to help benefits keep pace with inflation.<\/p>\n<p>However, in practice, many retirees see part of that adjustment offset by federal income taxes triggered when their total income crosses certain thresholds. Because these thresholds are not indexed to inflation, a growing number of Social Security recipients are affected each year. This phenomenon is sometimes called \u201ctax bracket creep.\u201d If you\u2019re collecting benefits in 2026 or beyond, here\u2019s what you need to know about this oft-overlooked tax rule and how it can reduce your net Social Security income.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The phenomenon sometimes called \u201ctax bracket creep\u201d that impacts Social Security Retirees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"kp-content-permissions":[],"class_list":["post-1202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/100\/2026\/02\/graphic-tax-bracket-creep.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1203,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions\/1203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"kp-content-permissions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region07\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kp-content-permissions?post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}