1. Forum
  2. Usenet
  3. MISC.TAXES

  • SSA Benefits and Tax Witholding

    From Jack@21:1/5 to All on Fri Nov 27 14:02:28 2015
    I just turned 62 and started to receive my retirement benefits, but
    don't have a clue on how to calculate what percentage of benefits should
    be with held. Can someone give me some guidance on whether 7, 10, 15 or
    25% should be with held from my benefits?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Retired@21:1/5 to Jack on Fri Nov 27 17:39:58 2015
    On 11/27/15 5:02 PM, Jack wrote:
    I just turned 62 and started to receive my retirement benefits, but
    don't have a clue on how to calculate what percentage of benefits should
    be with held. Can someone give me some guidance on whether 7, 10, 15 or
    25% should be with held from my benefits?


    That depends on several factors, such as what other income sources
    (spouse income, interest, IRA withdrawals, etc) you may have.

    To give you a basic idea, I have about 32K in SS benefits plus about
    22K in "other income". I have 10% withheld to cover both the "other"
    income, and any *taxable portion* of SS benefits (usually about 27%,
    or about $9800). With that w/h of $3600 I usually get about a $1500
    refund.

    Your best bet is to fill out a "what-if" IRS1040, and see what the
    result is.

    https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf

    If it happens that your SS benefit is your *only* income, you may not
    need to do any withholding as you will owe no tax after the standard
    deduction and exemptions.

    Also, you will need to get to know the IRS worksheet for figuring the
    taxes (if any) on your SS benefits. It is a sliding scale from 0 to
    85% *of the benefits* that become *subject to* whatever your bracket
    rate is. See IRS Pub https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p915.pdf

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jack@21:1/5 to Retired on Fri Nov 27 15:12:31 2015
    On 11/27/2015 2:39 PM, Retired wrote:
    On 11/27/15 5:02 PM, Jack wrote:
    I just turned 62 and started to receive my retirement benefits, but
    don't have a clue on how to calculate what percentage of benefits should
    be with held. Can someone give me some guidance on whether 7, 10, 15 or
    25% should be with held from my benefits?


    That depends on several factors, such as what other income sources
    (spouse income, interest, IRA withdrawals, etc) you may have.

    To give you a basic idea, I have about 32K in SS benefits plus about 22K
    in "other income". I have 10% withheld to cover both the "other" income,
    and any *taxable portion* of SS benefits (usually about 27%, or about
    $9800). With that w/h of $3600 I usually get about a $1500 refund.

    Your best bet is to fill out a "what-if" IRS1040, and see what the
    result is.

    https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf

    If it happens that your SS benefit is your *only* income, you may not
    need to do any withholding as you will owe no tax after the standard deduction and exemptions.

    Also, you will need to get to know the IRS worksheet for figuring the
    taxes (if any) on your SS benefits. It is a sliding scale from 0 to 85%
    *of the benefits* that become *subject to* whatever your bracket rate
    is. See IRS Pub https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p915.pdf

    Thanks for the links and information above. I've got some research to do.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)