He Bought $300,000 of Nvidia at Its October Peak. After a 32% Slide, He Sells at a $96,000 Loss. Medicare Will Still Count Nearly All of His $150,000 IRA Withdrawal

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) shares fell nearly 32% from their October 6 peak through November 12, 2026. On Thursday, the company announced that Jensen Huang had resigned as CEO.

Picture a hypothetical 67-year-old single retiree who invested $300,000 near that peak and sold at a $96,000 loss. Earlier this year he took $150,000 out of his traditional IRA. He expects the loss to cancel most of that withdrawal. On his tax return, it offsets $3,000. Medicare then uses that return to set his premiums.

Why a $96,000 Loss Becomes a $3,000 Deduction

A capital loss first offsets capital gains. Without gains this year, the IRS caps the loss he can deduct against ordinary income at $3,000 ($1,500 if you are married and file a separate return). He carries the unused part forward, which in his case is $93,000. In future years that carryforward offsets new gains plus another $3,000 of ordinary income each year. It won’t erase this year’s IRA withdrawal, because the IRS taxes that withdrawal as ordinary income.

$147,000 Lands Squarely in His MAGI

Medicare sets the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) from modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), which Social Security Administration defines as your total adjusted gross income (AGI) and tax-exempt interest income. Municipal bond interest seems tax-free, but it matters. The $150,000 withdrawal minus the $3,000 deduction leaves $147,000 in his income. Suppose he also has $20,000 in taxable pension income. That puts his MAGI at $167,000.

SSA uses a two-year lookback, so his 2026 income sets his 2028 premiums. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hasn’t published 2028 brackets yet, so the table below uses this year’s figures. Only about 8% of people with Medicare Part B pay any surcharge. A single taxpayer at or below $109,000 pays just the standard $202.90 monthly Part B premium.

Our single retiree’s MAGI falls in the third tier. It sits $4,000 below the $171,000 line where the next tier starts. The last row shows the biggest jump. A couple at $227,000 pays the first-tier surcharge.

If one spouse dies, the survivor starts filing single, and the single brackets run about half the joint ones. With the same income, the survivor lands in the fifth tier. The filing status change alone drives the higher tier.

That surviving-spouse jump from tier one to tier five on the same income is one of nine IRS rules that quietly drain retirement accounts, all charted in our free tax trap map.

Form SSA-44 won’t help him here, either. Social Security allows a new premium calculation after certain life-changing events, including retirement, reduced work hours, divorce and the death of a spouse. A voluntary IRA withdrawal and an ordinary stock-market loss don’t qualify on their own.

A Loss Counts Only in the Right Account

This whole calculation assumes he held Nvidia in a taxable brokerage account. If he had owned the shares inside his IRA, the drop would produce no deduction at all. The account would simply be smaller.

Under the wash-sale rule, buying substantially identical shares within 30 days before or after selling at a loss can delay his deduction. Generally, the disallowed loss gets added to the cost of replacement shares in a taxable account, allowing him to recognize it when he eventually sells those shares. Buying replacement shares in an IRA can make the loss permanently non-deductible.

Moves to Make Before December 31

1. Harvest gains against the loss carefully. He could sell appreciated holdings in his taxable account without increasing MAGI, provided the loss still leaves $3,000 to deduct against ordinary income. But those gains reduce the $93,000 he can carry forward.
2. Measure every dollar against the $171,000 line. Tax-exempt interest and ordinary dividends count toward MAGI, while capital-gain distributions can be offset by his stock loss. With just $4,000 of room left, unexpected income could push him into the next tier. In later years, he can manage IRA withdrawals around the premium brackets and use any remaining loss carryforward against future gains.
3. Keep SSA-44 for a qualifying event. If he stops part-time work or experiences another qualifying change, he can request a new determination using SSA-44. The IRA withdrawal alone won’t qualify.

Before you count on a stock-market loss to offset income Medicare sees, add up this year’s realized gains, your loss carryforwards and your taxable IRA withdrawals. The market may have taken $96,000 from his portfolio, but Medicare will still judge his income by what the IRS sees, not what he lost.

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