As you ring in the New Year, it is a good time to prepare for any changes impacting your retirement income. Do you need to adjust your tax withholding for federal and state taxes? As you prepare for filing your 2013 taxes, you may find that you need to adjust the withholding from your pension check for the 2014 tax year. This can be done easily online through your MBOS account.
- Click on the “Income Tax Withholding’ Tab
- Click on either the federal or state W-4P tab and make the necessary change
- Click on the Submit button to verify the changes on your account.
A note to those ‘new’ retirees, if you live in NJ you begin to pay State income tax on your pension once you have collected in pension payments what you contributed to the fund.
In your MBOS account you can also printout have mailed a duplicate 1099 form.
If you will be turning 65 at some point this year, you will need to enroll for Medicare Parts A and B if you want to remain on the state health benefits. If you are collecting Social Security, they will automatically enroll you for both parts A and B prior to your 65th birthday. If you are not collecting social security, you will need to contact Medicare and enroll for parts A and B about three months prior to your 65th birthday. Medicare will become your primary insurance and the state plan will be your supplemental policy.
When you get your Medicare card indicating your enrollment in Parts A and B you will need to mail a copy of the card to the Division of Pensions. The link to fact sheet #23 below will answer many of your questions about your retired health benefits and Medicare.
http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/pensions/pdf/factsheets/fact23.pdf
The Division will enroll you in Medicare part D – You Do Not Need To Enroll in Part D for prescription coverage. Your prescription coverage is part of the health coverage that is provided by the state.
Finally, if you have paid more than the base amount for Medicare in 2013 you will need to send in a copy of your Medicare letter and your 2013 – 1099 from Social Security in order to get reimbursed for any overpayment of your Medicare premium. A letter from the Division of Pensions should be coming to you in the near future on this.
Happy 2014!