A Retired Couple Can Pull About $46,700 From Their IRAs This Year and Pay $0 Federal Tax. Most Leave the Free Space Unused.

Every January, a specific window opens for retired married couples: they can pull roughly $46,700 out of a traditional IRA, count it as ordinary income, and owe nothing in federal tax. The window closes on December 31. Most couples do not use it, and the mechanics of why they leave it unused, and what it costs them later, are the actual story.

Where the $46,700 Comes From

The figure is built from three stacked pieces of the 2026 tax code. Start with the standard deduction. For married couples filing jointly in 2026, that number is $32,200, raised under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill signed in 2025. Layer on the additional standard deduction for taxpayers 65 and older, which stacks on top of the regular one for each qualifying spouse. Then add the new $6,000-per-person senior deduction created by the same law, which delivers $12,000 for a qualifying 65-plus couple.

These deductions apply to any ordinary income the couple reports, which is exactly the category a traditional IRA withdrawal falls into. A retired couple with modest Social Security checks and no other taxable income can dial in an IRA distribution up to that combined shield and pay zero federal tax. The dollar figure moves with inflation adjustments each year, but the mechanism is stable.

Why Most Couples Leave the Space Unused

Two forces push retirees away from the window. The first is spending. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts average annual household expenditures at $78,535 in 2024, and retiree spending typically runs lower. A couple whose Social Security and pension cover the bills has no reason to touch the IRA, so they don’t. The withdrawal that would have been free never happened.

The second is the assumption that any IRA withdrawal triggers taxes. Sitting under the deduction stack breaks that assumption, but most households never model it. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports the U.S. personal savings rate at 2.8% in the second quarter of 2026, down from 6.2% in the first quarter of 2024. Stretched households can’t spare the mental bandwidth for tax planning. Households that are comfortable tend to leave tax-advantaged accounts alone until required minimum distributions force their hand at 73.

What the Unused Space Actually Costs

Inflation adds urgency. The Consumer Price Index reached 332.8 in July 2026, up from 323.3 in August 2025, and the 2027 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment is tracking at 3.1%. Guaranteed income adjusts up. Deduction thresholds also adjust, but a retiree who skips this year’s free window cannot claim it retroactively.

Two Ways to Use It

The moves that turn the window into money are straightforward:

1. Withdraw and reinvest in a taxable account. Pull IRA dollars up to the deduction stack, pay no federal tax, and redeposit into a brokerage account. The basis resets. Future growth is taxed at long-term capital gains rates, which for many retirees is 0%.
2. Convert to a Roth. Move the same amount into a Roth IRA. No tax now, no RMDs later, and the money grows tax-free for a surviving spouse or heirs. A couple who repeats this from age 65 through 72 can shift a large share of their traditional balance into a Roth without writing a check to the IRS.

The average IRA balance for Baby Boomers is $257,002, according to Fidelity’s Q3 2025 analysis. A couple with combined balances near that level, using the window each year from 65 through 72, can meaningfully reshape their retirement tax profile (we sized up that quiet stretch between the last paycheck and the first required withdrawal in a free Roth conversion guide here: The Roth Window). Couples who leave the free space unused are making a delayed mistake. It shows up a decade later, when RMDs arrive, and there is no way to unwind the years they did not use.

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