It’s important to structure your retirement plan so you have income other than Social Security to
fall back on. But even with a nice amount of money saved, you may find that you
need your Social Security benefits to cover your living costs.
One nice thing about Social Security benefits is that they have inflation
protection. Each year, benefits are eligible for a cost-of-living adjustment, or
COLA, so that those monthly payments are able to keep up with rising costs.
Social Security COLAs are a good thing in theory, but those annual raises,
combined with a decades-old rule, could put you at risk of losing a portion of
your monthly checks.
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Social Security benefits are subject to taxes
The way to earn Social Security benefits in retirement is to pay taxes on wages
during your working years. For this reason, you’d think those benefits would be
yours to enjoy tax-free. But that generally only applies to retirees with very
low incomes.
Social Security benefits are subject to taxes based on provisional income, which
is calculated as adjusted gross income plus tax-exempt income plus 50% of your
annual Social Security checks. If the total is between $25,000 and $34,000 and
you’re single, or between $32,000 and $44,000 and you’re married, you could face
taxes on up to 50% of your Social Security benefits.
Meanwhile, if you’re single with a provisional income of over $34,000, you could
face taxes on up to 85% of your Social Security benefits. The same holds true if
you’re married with a provisional income above $44,000.
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The provisional income thresholds don’t get adjusted for inflation
You might think that only a small subset of seniors have to pay taxes on their
Social Security benefits. And currently, that’s true.
Thanks to the $6,000 senior tax deduction contained in the One Big Beautiful
Bill Act, an estimated 88% of Social Security recipients do not owe taxes on
their monthly benefits right now. But that $6,000 deduction is only temporary,
and it’s set to expire in 2028.
Once that happens, more seniors could end up owing taxes on their Social
Security benefits. And it’s not just because of the deduction disappearing.
A mismatched system hurts beneficiaries
Even without accounting for the phasing out of the $6,000 senior tax deduction,
the reason more seniors are apt to eventually owe taxes on their Social Security
is that those benefits adjust upward for inflation, but the provisional income
thresholds do not.
The thresholds for provisional income were set back in 1983. The Social Security
Administration reports that since 1984, the share of recipients whose benefits
are taxed has risen from less than 10% to more than 50%.
Now, this projection does not account for the temporary reprieve provided by the
$6,000 senior tax deduction. But all told, over time, more seniors are likely to
lose some of their benefits to taxes if lawmakers do not make an adjustment to
the provisional income formula. And they may not be motivated to do that for one
big reason: Taxes on Social Security benefits serve as revenue for the program.
As it is, Social Security is facing a major funding shortfall. The program may
have to cut benefits in roughly six years if lawmakers don’t find a way to
improve its cash flow. So Congress may not be in a rush to increase the
provisional income thresholds and let more seniors off the hook.
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Don’t get caught off guard by a surprise tax bill
Taxes are an important thing to plan for in retirement. And you should be aware
that even if you aren’t subject to taxes on your Social Security benefits today,
that could change in the future.
The last thing you want is a tax surprise. So it’s important to understand how
the rules work and when those taxes might apply.
If you’re still in the process of planning for retirement, you should know that
certain actions on your part could lower your chances of having to pay taxes on
your Social Security benefits. Keeping your savings in a Roth IRA or 401(k), for
example, could help you avoid those taxes.
Roth account withdrawals do not count toward your adjusted gross income and
therefore are not part of the provisional income formula. If you’re planning to
withdraw $30,000 a year from your savings, taking that money from a traditional
retirement account will likely put you over the limit where your benefits are
subject to taxes. Withdrawing from a Roth could help you avoid those taxes
entirely.
Bottom line
Social Security is one of the most important benefits for
seniors. And even if you have decent retirement savings, you may be counting
on those monthly checks to cover your costs.
But you should know that Social Security benefits are subject to federal income
taxes, and that the thresholds at which those taxes apply are very low. Even if
you’re not paying taxes on those benefits now, as they continue to increase,
you may find that you’re eventually forced to hand a chunk of that money over to
the government. The more prepared you are for that, the less of a blow it might
deal your finances.
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