I'm applying for SS retirement income. The application asks if I agree with my earnings history on my SS Statement. The earnings do not match anything on my 1040s. Help!

[mdpisano]

Which line of income on my 1040s do I use to compare to "Your Taxed Social Security Earnings" on my SS Statement?

[DoninGA]

The SS taxable income is from all your W-2's box 3 and any net self-employment income that you reported on a tax return.

[macuser_22]

There is no line on a 1040 that reports SS income.   That is reported by your employer on line 3 of the W-2 form that does not go on a tax return at all.   Your "earnings history" is the total of ALL prior SS earnings from the first W-2 you ever received in your lifetime.

[VolvoGirl]

Is it listed by year?  The SSA usually lags a couple years until they get it posted.

[dmertz]

If your only Social Security tax paid is that calculated on Schedule SE, your Social Security wages are the amount listed on short Schedule SE line 4 or long Schedule SE line 4c, but limited to the Social Security wage base for the particular year (the dollar threshold shown in the instruction for line 5 of short Schedule SE).

Regardless of your sources of wages, for years where your wages are greater than the Social Security wage base, the Taxed Medicare Earnings shown will be greater than the Taxed Social Security Earnings shown.

[Opus 17]

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@DoninGA wrote:

The SS taxable income is from all your W-2's box 3 and any net self-employment income that you reported on a tax return.

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Even if your only income is wages from a W-2 job, your social security wages (W-2 box 3) will often be more than your gross wages (box 1) because certain payroll deductions (like 401k contributions) are exempt from income tax but are not exempt from social security tax.

There is also an annual social security maximum wage, which was $132,900 for 2019 (and is inflation-linked).  Any year that you earn more than the SS wage base, your SS earnings will be the maximum for that year.

And some earnings are exempt from SS tax, such as certain earnings while a college student or graduate student and during certain Fellowships, so you might have zero SS wages in a year when you were a student or Fellow even though you had taxable income.  Some job classifications are entirely exempt from SS tax, depending on your state of residency.