Does your retirement plan consider tax issues? It should -- or it could cost you valuable post-work money.

Taxes don't end when you stop working. Federal and state tax issues come into play in several retirement income areas.

Retirement savings

The key focus of all retirement plans is ensuring you have enough money to live the retirement lifestyle you want. While you were working, you took advantage of workplace savings accounts such as 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts.

If your IRA is a Roth account, you don't have to worry about tax issues with the Internal Revenue Service. You paid taxes on the money before you put it into your Roth IRA, and its earnings have grown tax-free. That means you don't owe the IRS anything on your withdrawals once you retire.

But if you're depending on traditional IRA or 401(k) funds, you will owe taxes. You never paid income taxes on the workplace plan or deductible IRA contributions. Plus, the earnings of these accounts are tax-deferred, meaning you owe tax at your ordinary income tax rate on money you take out in retirement.

And if you've delayed distributions so as to postpone those taxes for as long as possible, remember that the required minimum distribution, or RMD, rules compel you to withdraw certain amounts when you turn 70 . The IRS has life-expectancy charts, the most common one being the Uniform Lifetime Table, that help you calculate how much to withdraw. Traditional IRA, 401(k) withdrawal rules

Withdrawals are required from all tax-deferred retirement accounts once you turn 70 . The account distributions are taxed at ordinary income tax rates. If you made nondeductible contributions to a traditional IRA, information on IRS Form 8606 you filed reporting those contributions will help you avoid paying taxes on that money again when you withdraw it. The IRS has three required minimum distribution tables to help you figure the amount to withdraw. Basically, the longer you are expected to live, the less the IRS requires you to withdraw, and pay taxes on, each year.

Taxable Social Security

Your private retirement accounts are designed to supplement your Social Security benefits.

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Tax Issues You Could Face in Retirement