Valle: Paying more taxes in retirement can be a good thing, but there are ways to lighten the load |
I’m 68 and I work part time teaching an employment workshop in retirement. I love it and it keeps me active. But I read somewhere that I’m paying too much in taxes. Is that true and what can I do to keep taxes under control? Should I stop working?
Taxation has been with us since the first cities took shape. Much of humanity’s earliest efforts in math, writing, science and even food production and trade revolved around taxes — how to pay them, collect them or avoid them. For better or for worse, taxes are here to stay.
Maybe you are paying more tax than you expected, and I’ll tell you why that’s probably a good thing. First, let’s look at why working part time in retirement is good for your health. Second, we’ll see how progressive taxation works. Finally, we’ll look at what you can do to keep taxes manageable in retirement.
In A Wealth of Well-Being, Meir Statman summarizes decades of academic research on what contributes to our overall wellness. In a chapter simply titled Work, Statman highlights the “expressive and emotional benefits of identity, structure and meaning” that employment provides. Statman cites a 2007 study showing clear differences in the health of........