Isn’t Social Security Tax Free Now?

Isn’t Social Security tax free now? Well, technically, no it’s not. And I know you’ve probably seen in the news, and so forth that, you know, tax, Social Security isn’t taxable anymore, and that’s technically not true. Okay. What came about is the one big beautiful bill introduced what they’re calling the senior deduction. And basically what that means is that if you’re age 65 and older, you get a $6,000 deduction that is going to offset potentially, the taxes that you would pay on your Social Security.

So that’s why they marketed as your Social Security is not taxable. Okay. But technically it still is okay. I have a lot of people coming in the office say, hey, I don’t have to worry about taxes on my Social Security anymore. And that’s not true. If you’re under the age of 65 and you start Social Security. So let’s say that you started Social Security at age 62.

Okay. Well, you don’t qualify for that senior deduction. So your Social Security is still taxable okay. And it’s a little weird formula a very long formula as far as how they determine how much of your Social Security is taxable. But the basic easiest way for me to tell you is basically what you do is you take half of your Social Security benefit, plus all of your other income sources.

And if it’s less than 32,000 for a married couple, then none of your Social Security is taxable. If that figure is between 32,000 and 44,000, then up to 50% of your Social Security is taxable. But then if it’s above, 44,000, then up to 85% of your Social Security is taxable and it’s just taxable at whatever your normal income tax rate is.

Okay. So is Social Security tax free? Well technically not, okay. So take that with a grain of salt when you hear that on the news.