People very often
confuse two things.
You can take Social Benefits as early as age 62, before your "normal
retirement" age. If you do that, then there is a limit to how much earned
income you can have in a year and not have to pay back benefits. Once you reach
your "normal" retirement age, you can have as much earned income as
you can get and not have to pay back benefits. The process for that is detailed
in the SSA publication at this link:
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10069.html
Many people misunderstand that and think that their benefit is not taxable.
Nothing is further from the truth.
For decades now, social security benefits have become taxable when your other
income exceeds a certain amount. When 1/2 of your Social Security Benefit plus
all of your other income (including tax-exempt interest) is more than $25,000,
Single, or $32,000, Married Filing Jointly, then up to 85% of your benefit
becomes taxable. There is even a worksheet on the back of your SSA-1099 that
shows you how to calculate that. The taxability of your SS benefit
depends only on how much other income you have, not on your age.
The taxation is explained in the SSA article at this link:
http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/493/~/paying-income-tax-on-social-security-benef....
