If SSA money is the only source of income, do you have to report?

[jyeh74]

It says here that Social Security money is not considered as earned income

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit/earned-income

My friend told me that if social security is the only source of income, even if it is over the $4050 (2017 limit for married filing separately), then you do not have to file taxes.  I do not believe this is true.

This link https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901402-do-i-need-to-file-my-own-taxes-if-i-m-a-dependent

says that the social security money is considered as "unearned income" and you have to file taxes if the social security money is greater than $1050/year.  This pretty much means that if you received social security money over $1050/year (which is not much at all), you must file taxes.

[MaryK1]

You are correct- if social security is the only income received, you may not be required to file a tax return.

Must I pay taxes on Social Security benefits?

Are Social Security Benefits Taxable? | Internal Revenue Service

https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/3299920

[jyeh74]

@TurboTaxMaryK1 please see my links above.  I think social security is considered "unearned income" and any "unearned income" greater than $1050/year needs to file taxes.

[MaryK1]

Actually a very good point!  I guess an explanation is that social security income is only taxed based on other sources of income.  There are cases where a word has a different meaning depending on the context (another one is "student")

[jyeh74]

@TurboTaxMaryK1 so I am confused.  Your links say that SSA money does not have to be reported and filed if that is the only source of money.  My links suggest that any social security money over $1050/year have to be reported.  So which is it?

[MaryK1]

You probably do not have to file a tax return if the only income is social security.  I think the explanations should be "taxable unearned income" so it would read "Your taxable unearned income (interest, dividends, capital gains, etc.) exceeds $1,050,"

[jyeh74]

@TurboTaxMaryK1 from your link, it says

Base Amounts. The three base amounts are:
$25,000 – if taxpayers  are single, head of household, qualifying widow or widower with a dependent child or married filing separately and lived apart from their spouse for all of 2016
$32,000 – if they are married filing jointly
$0 – if they are married filing separately and lived with their spouse at any time during the year

So if a couple is filing jointly, and the SSA is over $32,000 then they would they have to report it?
So if a couple is filing separately, and they lived together, ANY SSA over $0 (which is basically any amount) then they would have to report it?

[MaryK1]

No, the base amounts are the nonsocial security income

[jyeh74]

@TurboTaxMaryK1 this link <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://faq.ssa.gov/link/portal/34011/34019/article/3831/must-i-pay-taxes-on-social-security-benefit...>

it says at the bottom " If you file a joint return, you must pay taxes if you and your spouse have “combined income” of more than $32,000"  NOTE: “Combined income” includes your adjusted gross income, tax-exempt interest income and half of your Social Security benefits.

But let's say half of your social security money is over $32,000 according to the verbiage above, the couple they would have to report it. The couple would have to earn more than $64,000 a year from social security.

I cannot find an IRS link that proves your statement above that if the only source of income is social security, regardless of the amount, you do not have to report it.  Can you please show me?