Arrunk
Returning Member

Retirement and SS Questions

I am single and live in California. My taxable SS income from my 2020 return is $14,807.00.  How much tax do I need to have withheld on that amount? 

 

Also, My Retirement income is $35,748.00.  I need to know how much of that to have withheld, too.

 

Currently, no taxes are being withheld from either.

mfields2
Employee Tax Expert

Retirement tax questions

The best way to determine how much you might owe in taxes is to use an online tax estimation tool.  Turbotax provides a free "TaxCastor" tax estimator that you can use:  https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/

 

Most online tools are either very simple to use (and not as accurate), or rather complex (and not easy to use). A good example is https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator - it is very easy to use, but will not give you very accurate results.  In particular, your Social Security income is not taxable in California, so the state tax calculator to estimate state taxes would have to remove those amounts to be accurate (while keeping them in for the federal tax calculation).  In addition, items like the California renter's credit are not considered in the calculation.  However, it is "easy" to use and can be a great starting point and will generally over-estimate your total tax bill, so it can be helpful.

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