Yes - you can claim a repayment of social security benefits. The way repayment is claimed depends in which year income was repaid and how much the repayment was.
If you repay income in the same year(such as Social Security benefits) you can net the repayment amount against the amount reportable as income.
A taxpayer who repays an amount that was reported as income in an earlier year may claim a tax deduction or tax credit for the repayment in the year the income is repaid.
The IRS merely states this:
Repayments More Than Gross Benefits (same year)
In some situations, your Form SSA-1099 or Form RRB-1099 will show that the total benefits you repaid (box 4) are more than the gross benefits (box 3) you received. If this occurred, your net benefits in box 5 will be a negative figure (a figure in parentheses) and none of your benefits will be taxable.
Repayment of benefits received in an earlier year.
If the total amount shown in box 5 of all of your Forms SSA-1099 and RRB-1099 is a negative figure, you may be able to deduct part of this negative figure that represents benefits you included in gross income in an earlier year, if the figure is more than $3,000.
If the figure is $3,000 or less, it is a miscellaneous itemized deduction and can no longer be deducted. Deduction of more than $3,000. If this deduction is more than $3,000, you should figure your tax two ways.
1. Figure your tax for 2021 with the itemized deduction included on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 16.
2. Figure your tax for 2021 in the following steps.
a. Figure the tax without the itemized deduction included on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 16.
b. For each year after 1983 for which part of the negative figure represents a repayment of benefits, refigure your taxable benefits as if your total benefits for the year were reduced by that part of the negative figure. Then, refigure the tax for that year.
c. Subtract the total of the refigured tax amounts in (b) from the total of your actual tax amounts.
d. Subtract the result in (c) from the result in (a). Compare the tax figured in methods 1 and 2. Your tax for 2021 is the smaller of the two amounts. If method 1 results in less tax, take the itemized deduction on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 16. If method 2 results in less tax, claim a credit for the amount from step 2c above on Schedule 3 (Form 1040), line 13z. Enter “I.R.C. 1341” on the entry line. If both methods produce the same tax, deduct the repayment on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 16.
