How do you adjust taxable amount of soc sec benefits? According to IRS pub 915, U.S. citizens residing abroad benefits are exempt from U.S. tax tax on their benefits.

You don't enter the Social Security benefits and then adjust the amount. If you are a resident of one of the countries where your Social Security benefits are exempt from U.S. tax, do not enter the amount from box 5 of your SSA-1099 in TurboTax.

The countries where this applies are Canada, Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Romania, United Kingdom, and Italy (only if your are also a citizen of Italy).

Not wanting to contradict someone with more experience than me, but I think a better way to deal with this situation is to enter the Social Security amount(s) from box 5, and then go to the Social Security Benefits Worksheet in Forms and just check the box near the top to indicate that the Taxpayer/spouse is a resident in the exempt countries.  That causes the box 5 amount to be entered on line 1b of the worksheet and removes the box 5 entry from the calculations.

(Using the downloaded version of TT if that matters.)

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@deOldphart wrote:

(Using the downloaded version of TT if that matters.)

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@deOldphart 

Yes, using the download TurboTax software matters very much. The person who posted the original question was using TurboTax Online (according to the tag below the question). There is no forms mode in TurboTax Online, so there is no way to check the box at the top of the Social Security Benefits Worksheet. The Step-by-Step interview does not offer the option.

So simply not entering the box 5 amount works for everyone. Checking the box on the Social Security Benefits Worksheet only works for someone who is using the CD/Download software.