SS question

witzend

Well-Known Member
SS will actually mail you a retirement statement based on your input to SS if you ask them to. It's also a good way to make sure that everything that you THINK should be in there IS in there.

When you collect SS, they send you and the IRS a 1099/1042S - a "Social Security Benefit Statement". They don't take taxes out of your payments, but they do report it as untaxed income to the IRS.

The wage cap depends upon how much money you are collecting. It's a set rate and you can earn up to that amount before you have to report it to SS. Once you earn over that amount you have to report it to SS, and if you do so more than 12 months in a 5 year period, they start deducting the overage dollar for dollar from your SS payment.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I only get disability and I doubt that my retirement social security is going to be any higher. I wouldnt get both I dont think. One or the other.
 

klmno

Active Member
It's a set rate and you can earn up to that amount before you have to report it to SS.

Anybody have any idea what that amount is? I know amounts will probably be different 16 years down the road but I'm assuming most cost changes will be relatively comparable (ie, higher cost of living, small change in SS amount, higher income allowed.)

DJ- that kind of hoovers since you worked for years before becoming disabled.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
Anybody have any idea what that amount is? I know amounts will probably be different 16 years down the road but I'm assuming most cost changes will be relatively comparable (ie, higher cost of living, small change in SS amount, higher income allowed.)

DJ- that kind of hoovers since you worked for years before becoming disabled.

K

You should read this link.

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10069.html
 

klmno

Active Member
Well, unfortunately that didn't help a lot. I don't plan to retire before my full retirement age. I can roughly estimate what my monthly SS payment will be. What I can't figure out is how much tax, if any, I'll have to pay on it and whether or not they'll reduce it just due to having other sources of retirement income (IOW, is there a cap on what I can draw total without SS being reduced.)
 

klmno

Active Member
http://www.ssa.gov/planners/taxes.htm

I just found this link from poking around your link, Witz. I think it helps answers my question. Thanks!

Is a pension taxable? We get a pension, plus a benefit that's similar to a 401K, plus SS. I know that extra benefit is taxable and I'm assuming the part we get from the employer's contribution is taxable, too, so am I being pessimistic or is it all going to be taxable?
 

keista

New Member
Generally pensions are taxable and your entire withdrawal from 401 is taxable since it was tax free when you put it in.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
K-

You'll pay the same tax on it as you would any income. It's income. They will not reduce it because of other retirement income. (I'm going to leave out the stuff about whether you are a spouse collecting or on disability. For the purposes of this conversation we're just talking about Social Security Retirement Benefits.)

Everyone who pays into Social Security gets Social Security when they retire. It is taxed as "regular income". Other income, say an inheritance gets taxed at the inheritance rate; an IRA gets taxed at the special IRA rates for that type of savings account; Social Security Retirement Benefits are "income". They get taxed at the regular income rate and nothing else you have coming in will change that.
 

klmno

Active Member
Well shoot. Then why do they have all those questions on tax forms about being age and being over 65, or whatever? I had the false illusion that senior citizens got a tax break. LOL! Oh well- at least I'm figuring this out now! I might end up getting what I'm living on now, which is barely considered middle class, but I won't be raising a kid at that point or paying for gas to get to work and I can do more fugal things since I'll have more time I guess. It's still a lot better than never being able to retire!
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well....a bit of social security is taxed differently unless a hell of a lot has changed. I know that when I used to do taxes the front of a 1040 had a place where you put your SS to the left of the main column and if it was less than some number that I cant remember now, then that income wasnt taxable.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
l draw social security disability. Currently, any amount under 24K is tax free provided you have no other taxable income coming in. lf you have other taxable income SS is taxed as regular income provided the total is over 24K. any tax accountant can answer this question for you with a quick phone call.

ln addition, some states do not tax SS income no matter how high.

check with an accountant to be sure as l'm only going on my experience and am not an accountant by a long shot.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
This is not my area of expertise (disclaimer, lol) but my brother in law retired from the FBI and the gov't acutally reduced his SS benefits (although he had years in the public sector) which altered his retirement benefits. My easy child son is 2.5 years away from State gov't retirement and somehow the State altered their method of computation too.

I remember growing up "getting" that working for the Gov't or the Union would guarantee your retirement. Hmm. Now I wonder if anyone can truly rely on specific amounts. on the other hand preplanning is important. by the way, my area of expertise is real estate. Our only true assets are our business and our home. Yikes! The market has tanked. We can not convert those assets into retirement income now. Whine. Sigh. It was a great idea some years ago. LOL. DDD
 

klmno

Active Member
You never know with real estate, DDD. That market can and will turn around again, in my humble opinion. Now how long it might take is a different issue. I'd love to be able to buy a piece of land before prices skyrocket again.

The fed gov used to use a different pension plan that superceded SS so if you were in that, you didn't pay into SS and then can't get any retirement pay from it- and if you crossed over to this new system, you'd get some but not the same SS as if you'd always paid into it, but you'd get more from that retirement plan. I wonder if that's what your bro did.

As far as your easy child- I have no idea but wouldn't begin to speculate on a state gov- our state gov has whacked all kinds of retirement benefits over the past few years.

Now- what's a reasonable amount to pay a young man just to help unload a rental truck for a couple of hours? Does $15 per hour sound ok?
 

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
Am hoping real estate will turn around again - SO said I should have sold the house when prices were at their highest - but if I couldn't afford to move into a home because they were selling so high, what would be the point. Capital gains tax would have killed me LOL They fix it so middle class people can never win :(

15 and hour is ok for loading and unloading trucks - its what SO gets helping his friend

Marcie
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
Well....a bit of social security is taxed differently unless a hell of a lot has changed. I know that when I used to do taxes the front of a 1040 had a place where you put your SS to the left of the main column and if it was less than some number that I cant remember now, then that income wasnt taxable.

It all gets added into the total now, Janet.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
See how long its been since I have seen the front of a paper 1040! I went into a post office this year looking for the tax forms and they looked at me like I had three heads. That is where they always had them when I used to do taxes on paper when I was younger. Where in the world do you go to get paper 1040s anymore?
 
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