He Sold the Season-Ticket Rights He’d Held for 20 Years. Medicare Raised His Premium Two Years Later.
He sold a personal seat license he had held for two decades, pocketed the cash, and filed his taxes without a second thought. Then a Medicare notice arrived two years later and rewrote the cost of that decision.
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The Check Shows Up Two Years After the Sale
Picture a longtime fan who bought a personal seat license two decades ago, giving him the right to buy the same season tickets year after year. He has climbed the same stadium stairs every fall, watched his knees start to complain and finally decided the ticket rights were worth more to him as cash than as seats he uses a handful of times each season.
He sells the license in one clean transaction, files his taxes and moves on. Nothing feels different until two years later, when a Medicare notice arrives saying his monthly premium is going up. The Social Security deposit that follows is smaller. The sale is old news. Medicare is just getting around to it.
Why the Bill Arrives Two Years Later
Medicare generally determines Part B and Part D income surcharges using modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) from two years earlier. That delay is what makes a one-time sale feel like an ambush. The surcharge is called the income-related monthly adjustment amount (IRMAA). In 2026, a single filer with MAGI of $109,000 or less pays the standard $202.90 Part B premium and no Part D surcharge.
Cross above $109,000 and Part B rises to $284.10, with another $14.50 a month added for Part D. MAGI above $137,000 through $171,000 pushes Part B to $405.80 and the Part D surcharge to $37.50. A profitable sale of a long-held asset can supply exactly the income spike needed to cross one or more of those lines. For tax purposes, gain on personal-use property is generally measured by subtracting adjusted basis from the amount realized on the sale. So what he originally paid for the license matters; Medicare is not simply treating the entire sale price as income.
The Good News Is That the Spike Can Fade
A one-time gain does not necessarily sentence him to higher Medicare premiums indefinitely. IRMAA is recalculated each year using a newer tax return. If the season-ticket sale creates an unusual income spike and the following year returns to normal, the higher premium can disappear when Medicare reaches that lower-income return.
That makes the delay irritating, but usually temporary. The timing is what catches people: by the time Medicare responds to the sale, the proceeds may already have been spent, reinvested or forgotten.
SSA-44 Usually Cannot Undo the Sale
Social Security allows people to request a new IRMAA determination after certain life-changing events, including retirement, reduced work, marriage, divorce or the death of a spouse. Voluntarily selling a personal asset is generally not one of them.
That means someone who simply decides the season-ticket rights are worth more as cash should not expect Form SSA-44 to erase the resulting surcharge. The better opportunity comes before the sale, when there may still be room to manage the taxable gain around other income.
Before Giving Up the Seats, Run These Three Checks
A 20-year tradition deserves a little tax homework before someone else gets the tickets:
- Find the original license agreement and purchase records. The documented basis helps determine how much of the sale is actually taxable gain.
- Look at the rest of the year before realizing additional capital gains or making a Roth conversion that could stack more income on top of the sale.
- Estimate where the resulting MAGI falls against the Medicare thresholds, then set aside money for the possible premium increase two years later.
Selling the rights may still be exactly the right call. He gets cash for something his knees have made harder to enjoy, and any Medicare surcharge tied to a one-time gain can eventually roll off. He may be done climbing those stadium stairs. Medicare just takes two more years to close out the season.
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Gerelyn Terzo is the author of dividend investing handbook "Dividend Investing Strategies: How to Have Your Cake & Eat It Too." A veteran financial journalist, she covers agri-finance for outlets like Global AgInvesting and the broader stock market and personal finance for 24/7 Wall Street. She began at CNBC and later helped launch Fox Business in New York. Gerelyn currently resides in Woodland Park, Colorado and dabbles in nature photography as a hobby.
