That depends on how much other income you have. When you file as Married Filing Jointly, then if 1/2 of the SS benefit plus all of your other income is more than $32,000, then some of the SS benefit is taxable. Turbotax figures this out for you automatically. Just enter the SS benefit reported in Box 5 of the SSA-1099 and Turbotax calculates the taxable part, if any.
You can not avoid paying tax on SS benefits by filing separately. If you are married and live together, and one of you files separately, then the other one MUST include SS income as gross income when deciding whether to file, and 85% of the SS benefit becomes taxable.
