Whether or not your Social Security benefits are taxable depends on what other income you report on your tax return.
In order to calculate how much of your Social Security benefits are taxable, add 1/2 half of your benefits to the total of all of your other income, including tax-exempt interest. If this amount is greater than the base amount for your filing status, then some portion of your benefits will be taxable. The base amounts are as follows:
Single, Head of Household and Qualifying Surving Spouse - $25,000;
Married, filing separately (if you lived apart from your spouse for the entire year) - $25,000;
Married, filing jointly - $32,000; and
Married, filing separately - $0.
"Generally, you can figure the taxable amount of the benefits in Are My Social Security or Railroad Retirement Tier I Benefits Taxable?, on a worksheet in the Instructions for Form 1040 (and Form 1040-SR) or in Publication 915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits. However, if you made contributions to a traditional Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA) for 2022 and you or your spouse were covered by a retirement plan at work or through self-employment, use the worksheets in Publication 590-A, Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), to see if any of your social security benefits are taxable and to figure your IRA deduction." (Note: Right click on the links above and open the link in a new page.)
I obtained the above information from the Internal Revenue Service website at the following link (Note: Copy the below link and paste it in a new browser page.) The above information is included in the first Frequently Asked Questions.
https://www.irs.gov/faqs/social-security-income
Per the information included on the Internal Revenue Service website at https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-reminds-taxpayers-their-social-security-benefits-may-be-taxable, you may incur income tax on 50% of your benefits when your base income, calculated per above, is
- Filing single, head of household or qualifying widow or widower with $25,000 to $34,000 income.
- Married filing separately and lived apart from their spouse for all of the tax year with $25,000 to $34,000 income.
- Married filing jointly with $32,000 to $44,000 income.
You may incur income tax on 85% of your benefits when your base income, calculated per above, is
- Filing single, head of household or qualifying widow or widower with more than $34,000 income.
- Married filing jointly with more than $44,000 income.
- Married filing separately and lived apart from their spouse for all of the tax year with more than $34,000 income.
- Married filing separately and lived with their spouse at any time during the tax year.
