‘Social Security benefits are not taxable.’
This was true back in the early days of the program, but it wasn’t laid down in the law. In early rulings, the Treasury Department concluded that benefits were considered nontaxable “gratuities.”
An act of Congress in 1983 officially allowed benefits to be taxed. If your income is above a certain threshold, you may owe federal taxes on a percentage of what you collect. And some states tax Social Security, too.
But it’s possible to reduce the tax hit on your benefits. For example, IRA withdrawals can push your income and your benefits into taxable territory, so consider taking your IRA distributions before you start collecting Social Security.
4 thoughts on “12 Myths About Social Security Finally Debunked”
when i die will my wife collect my ss
I am a 65 year old male that will be eligible for social security in a few months. My wife of 43+ years is drawing teacher retirement after a 35 year career. As we understand it, she will not be eligible for any of my survivor SS benefits or any of her own SS earnings. She has worked many, many hours of SS paying jobs during her college days, summers off and in the 5 or so years since her retirement from teaching. Do we understand this correctly and, if so, is there any course of action we can take to change that?
VJ, Bishop, TX
yOU HAVE ANSWERED SOME QUESTIONS I HAD. THANKS
When my husband recently passed, I was unaware that I could get his social security which was three times the amount than mine. After being told to go after his social security amount instead of mine, I went back to ask for his and now I’m dealing with a very slow system. I’ve been to the social security office three times this week already and still no change in my benefits to collect my husbands benefits.I have been to two different social security offices and nothing is happening. They keep promising the change will take time, but I wonder if will ever happen. What else can I do that I haven’t already done?