The emails say nearly 9 in 10 Social Security beneficiaries won't pay income taxes on their benefits in the future. But the Trump tax law did not directly address Social Security.

The emails say nearly 9 in 10 Social Security beneficiaries won’t pay income taxes on their benefits in the future. But the Trump tax law did not directly address Social Security.

The Social Security Administration has sent a misleading email to beneficiaries stating that President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cuts and spending law eliminates taxes on Social Security benefits for most recipients.

“The bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits, providing meaningful and immediate relief to seniors who have spent a lifetime contributing to our nation’s economy,” said the email, which multiple beneficiaries shared with NBC News.

But it does not eliminate federal taxes on Social Security. Budget reconciliation, the arcane process Senate Republicans used to pass the bill while avoiding a Democratic filibuster, does not allow changes to be made to Social Security.

  • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    21 hours ago

    FTA: The standard deduction has been increased for seniors such that 90% will have their Social Security income completely covered by the deduction, meaning they won’t pay taxes on that income.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      20 hours ago

      The word ‘standard’ does not appear in the article.

      What are you talking about?

      This is what is in the article:

      The Trump package does, however, include a temporary tax deduction of up to $6,000 for seniors ages 65 and older, and $12,000 for married seniors.

      But this only even affects people who have both SSI/SSDI and enough additional income to get over that standard deduction + the additional deduction.

      https://smartasset.com/retirement/is-social-security-income-taxable

      Combined Income = Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) + Nontaxable Interest + 1/2 of Social Security Benefits

      If your combined income is above a certain limit (the IRS calls this limit the base amount), you will need to pay at least some tax. The limit remains unchanged in 2025 from 2024 – $25,000 if you are a single filer, head of household or qualifying widow or widower with a dependent child. The 2024 and 2025 limit for joint filers is $32,000.

      The average social security payout is ~$1980 a month, or $23,760 yearly.

      (not sure if thats before or after your $185 medicare deductions, ie premiums, probably before, but w/e)

      So… if your only income is Social Security, chances are you never had to pay any taxes on it anyway.

      What bumping the deduction does… if it is actually as described in the article… means that if you have another source of income, a pension or 401k, a trust paying you out, part time employment, whatever…

      Well now you can take more of that money, up to I guess $31k for a single person, before you would start to get taxed.

      …

      So… woohoo, a fairly small amount of people can now live a life of poverty, instead of abject poverty, until taxes kick in.

      For the record, with a 1/3 rent to income ratio, thats uh… now you can move up to $860 from $660 rental.

      Or you can factor in that additional $200 a month as the cost of losing your food stamps (whole lot of social security recipients on that) and the just increasing cost of food now that no one is working the fields, because they’re scary bsd icky brown people.

      Oh right and Section 8 was gutted, so a whole lot of Social Security recipients will either be getting kicked out of their housing or seeing their rents jacked up.

      …

      Oh right, theres also the whole… substantially gainful income thing.

      If you’re on Social Security, see this tax deduction cap being raised, and then go get additional income?

      Well, you may not qualify for any payments from Social Secuirty anymore, at all.

      SGI calculations and codes are waaaay too complex for me to summarize here, but arguably thats the point, to confuse the shit out of people and then either discourage them from economic activity, or just kick them off the benefits.