Social Security Recipients: Should You File Taxes This Year?

Tax season has been underway for over two weeks now. In the event you’re a Social Safety beneficiary questioning whether or not you must file a tax return this yr, we’ll allow you to discover out.

Your age, marital standing and the way a lot earnings you earn exterior of Social Safety advantages all have an effect on whether or not it’s essential to submit a tax return to the IRS. Even in the event you aren’t required to file, it may be a good suggestion if you wish to obtain refundable tax credit or a refund for earnings taxes you paid throughout the yr. 

We’ll allow you to discover out in the event you’ll must file your taxes in 2024. For extra, this is why you need to maintain on to that COLA letter you acquired final yr. Additionally, this is the utmost quantity of Social Safety cash you’ll be able to obtain every month, how a lot of a COLA enhance you must get and our picks for the greatest tax software program.

Learn extra: File Early and Get As much as 20% Off Your 2023 Taxes With TurboTax

How can I discover out if my Social Safety advantages are taxable?

Your Social Safety advantages could also be taxable if one-half of your Social Safety advantages plus all your different earnings is bigger than the bottom quantity of your submitting standing (the bottom quantity for figuring out tax legal responsibility) which is:

• $25,000 for single filers, head of family, or a qualifying surviving partner.
• $25,000 for married individuals submitting individually who lived aside from their partner in 2023.
• $32,000 for married {couples} submitting collectively. 
• $0 for married individuals submitting individually who lived with their partner.

Different types of earnings embody wages, self-employment, curiosity, dividends and different reported taxable earnings. 

One strategy to perceive whether or not your advantages are taxable is to contemplate gross earnings, which is your whole earnings earlier than taxes. 

You will have to file a return for the 2024 tax yr:

• If you’re an single senior at the very least 65 years outdated and your gross earnings is greater than $14,700. 
• If you’re submitting a joint return with a partner who can be 65 or older and your gross earnings is greater than $28,700.
• If you’re submitting a joint return with a partner who’s beneath 65 years outdated and your gross earnings is greater than $27,300.

One other strategy to perceive whether or not your Social Safety advantages are taxable is to take a look at mixed earnings, which is your adjusted gross earnings + nontaxable curiosity + half of your Social Safety advantages. 

• If you’re a single tax filer and your mixed earnings is between $25,000 and $34,000, the SSA says you will have to pay earnings tax on as much as 50% of your advantages.
• If you’re a single tax filer and your mixed earnings is greater than $34,000, you will have to pay earnings tax on as much as 85% of your advantages. 
• If you’re submitting a joint return and your mixed earnings is between $32,000 and $44,000, you will have to pay earnings tax on as much as 50% of your advantages.
• If you’re submitting a joint return and your mixed earnings is greater than $44,000, you will have to pay earnings tax on as much as 85% of your advantages. 
• If you’re married submitting individually and did not dwell together with your partner final yr, your Social Safety advantages are taxed as in the event you have been a single filer.
• If you’re married and submitting individually whereas dwelling together with your partner you most likely should pay taxes in your advantages. 

On line 6b of Type 1040 or Type 1040-SR, you’ll report the taxable portion of your Social Safety advantages. 

Ought to I file my 2023 taxes even when I am not required to?

The largest purpose to file a tax return even when you do not have to is to obtain a tax refund. 

In the event you had federal tax earnings withheld out of your pay or in the event you made estimated tax funds in 2023, you might need to file a tax return this yr. You may obtain a tax refund of any surplus withholding. 

One other circumstance the place submitting is inspired is in the event you qualify for tax credit that give you refunds, together with the earned earnings tax credit score, the kid tax credit score or the kid and dependent care tax credit score. The earned earnings tax credit score is totally refundable, that means it goes towards your tax refund you probably have no tax legal responsibility.

How can I discover my Social Safety profit quantity for 2023? 

The Social Safety Administration sends out a Social Safety Profit Assertion by mail or on-line in January together with your advantages from the earlier yr disclosed inside. The knowledge within the assertion supplies you with the earnings you’ll disclose in your tax return if you find yourself submitting one.

For extra data on Social Safety and tax season, this is why you must create a web based IRS account previous to tax season’s arrival.