Hi my wife gets SSD and started working 3 days a week at a hotel. can we still get the retirement exclusion?

[user400033242]

i work fulltime she does not.

[CatinaT1]

It depends.  Here’s a quick way to determine if you must pay taxes on your Social Security benefits: Add one-half of the Social Security income to all other income, including tax-exempt interest. Then compare that amount to the base amount for your filing status. If you exceed the base amount, some of your benefits may be taxable.
  

Base Amounts. The three base amounts are: 

$25,000 – if single, head of household, surviving spouse, or married filing separately (did not live with spouse)

$35,000 – if married filing jointly 

$0 – if  married filing separately and lived with their spouse at any time during the year 

Is Social Security Disability Income Taxable?

[xmasbaby0]

TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY

Up to 85% of your Social Security benefits can be taxable on your federal tax return.  There is no age limit for having to pay taxes on Social Security benefits if you have other sources of income along with the SS benefits.  When you have other income such as earnings from continuing to work, investment income, pensions, etc. up to 85% of your SS can be taxable. 

 What confuses people about this is that before you reach full retirement age, if you continue working while drawing SS, your benefits can be reduced if you earn over a certain limit. (For 2019 it was $17,640— for 2020 it was $18,240; for 2021 it was  $18,960.  For 2022 it was  $19,560  —  for 2023 $21,240)

After full retirement age, no matter how much you continue to earn, your benefits are not reduced by your earnings; your employer will still have to withhold for Social Security and Medicare.

To see how much of your Social Security was taxable, look at lines 6a and 6b of your 2022 Form 1040

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1899144-is-my-social-security-income-taxable

https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/are-my-social-security-or-railroad-retirement-tier-i-benefits-taxable

You need to file a federal return if half your Social Security plus your other income is $25,000 when filing single or head of household, or $32,000 when filing married filing jointly, $0 if you are filing married filing separately.

Some additional information:  There are 13 states that tax Social Security—Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia.  These states offer varying degrees of income exemptions, but four mirror the federal tax schedule: MN, ND,VT, and WV