Getting a tax deduction today feels responsible. But what if the bigger risk to your retirement is not how much you are paying in taxes now, but how much you might be forced to pay later?

In this episode of The Divorce the IRS Podcast, we begin breaking down the first of eight major tax time bombs that can quietly threaten your long-term financial plan: exploding tax rates.

Over the past several episodes, we have laid the foundation by unpacking basic tax concepts and challenging common assumptions. Now we shift into the structural risks built into many retirement strategies that often go unnoticed.

Financial planning is always based on two categories of assumptions. The first includes the things you control, such as how much you save, how you invest, and when you retire. The second includes the things you cannot control, such as inflation, longevity, and future tax rates.

Tax rates are one of the biggest unknown variables in retirement planning.

As of 2026, the U.S. national debt exceeds 38 trillion dollars. Social Security and Medicare face long term funding pressure. Historically, tax rates have been far higher than they are today, with top marginal rates reaching 50 percent, 70 percent, and even 91 percent in prior decades. Today the top bracket is 37 percent.

Are we truly in a high tax environment, or are we living through historically low rates?

In this episode, we examine why rising government deficits increase long term tax risk and why today may represent a rare planning window to take action. We also introduce Roth strategies and Roth conversions as a way to lock in known tax rates instead of leaving your retirement exposed to unknown future policy changes.

You will learn:

• Why future tax rates are completely outside your control
• How government debt and entitlement funding pressures can influence taxes
• A brief history of U.S. tax brackets and what it suggests about the future
• Why today’s rates may represent an opportunity that will not last forever
• How Roth conversions can help you lock in known tax rates
• The mortgage refinance analogy and how it applies to your IRA
• How even a small increase in tax rates can compound into large lifetime costs
• Why deferring taxes can benefit the IRS more than it benefits you

We explain why paying taxes intentionally today at known and historically low rates can function like refinancing your IRA. Many people instinctively prefer to defer taxes, but that strategy assumes future rates will be equal or lower. If they are higher, the long term cost can be significant.

This episode introduces the first tax time bomb: exploding tax rates. It sets the stage for the remaining seven, each with the potential to create unnecessary lifetime tax exposure if left unaddressed.

The goal is not fear. It is preparation.

You cannot control government tax policy. But you can control how exposed you are to it.

In upcoming episodes, we will continue breaking down the remaining tax time bombs and show you practical ways to defuse them before they quietly erode your retirement savings.

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