Before retirement

[DEAF4REAL]

I need to know about taxes after retirement, what I should need to know before going to retire? Such as forms or paper works should I need to get the taxes done.

[xmasbaby0]

You do not say what your source of income will be when you retire.  If you will be receiving Social Security then every year in January you will receive a SSA1099 which you enter on your tax return.  If Social Security is your ONLY income then you will not have to file a tax return.  If you have other types of income along with the SS, then you file a return that shows ALL of your income from each source.  Depending on how much other income you receive, your Social Security might be taxable.

If you receive income from a pension or retirement account distributions (like an IRA or 401k) then you will get a 1099R in January which will have to be entered on your tax return.  Retirement income is taxable on a federal return.  

TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY

Up to 85% of your Social Security benefits can be taxable on your federal tax return.  There is no age limit for having to pay taxes on Social Security benefits if you have other sources of income along with the SS benefits.  When you have other income such as earnings from continuing to work, investment income, pensions, etc. up to 85% of your SS can be taxable.

 What confuses people about this is that before you reach full retirement age, if you continue working while drawing SS, your benefits can be reduced if you earn over a certain limit. (For 2017 that limit is $16,920 —for 2018 it will be $17,040—for 2019 it will be $17,640)  After full retirement age, no matter how much you continue to earn, your benefits are not reduced by your earnings; your employer will still have to withhold for Social Security and Medicare.

To see how much of your Social Security was taxable, look at lines 5a and 5b of your Form 1040

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1899144-is-my-social-security-income-taxable

You need to file a federal return if half your Social Security plus your other income is $25,000 when filing single or head of household, or $32,000 when filing married filing jointly, $0 if you are filing married filing separately.

Some additional information:  There are 13 states that tax Social Security—Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia.  These states offer varying degrees of income exemptions, but four mirror the federal tax schedule: MN, ND,VT, and WV

Some states tax retirement income and some do not, or they tax only above certain amounts of retirement income.  You have not said what state you are in.

[DEAF4REAL]

I'm deaf person and I'm not bright person who don't know about retirement but I'm in Missouri and work for postal service and I get the annuity ,SSI and TSP when I get retired.But I don't know about the TSP when you get separation from USPS and what the amount I will get and the rules in TSP is very frustration except have to be 60 yrs old to get the payments but I don't know how to transfer fund into IRA. I have been seek helps and they don't have patience for the deaf person. So the annuity and SSI is not really true accurate amount in monthly in annuity estimate report. Before I going to retire, I must need to know what amount of deductions( health insurance,etc.) and taxes that I owes to in order keep paying bills first before spend anything. I'm still fighting for help with my retirement stuffs. I'm already eligible to retire any time.

[xmasbaby0]

@DEAF4REAL 

When you say you will be receiving "SSI" do you actually mean Social Security benefits?  Because "SSI" and Social Security benefits are not the same thing.  I suspect you really mean you will be receiving Social Security benefits since you have had a career with the U.S. Postal Service.   But correct us if that is a mistake--if you receive actual SSI  (Supplemental Security Income) , it is not reported on a tax return and is not taxable.

If you do not know how much you will be receiving from Social Security when you retire, there is a tool you can use to estimate your benefits.  You cannot get an exact amount until you actually begin the process of applying for your Social Security, but you can at least get an idea using this tool, and as you will notice, there are links to more information regarding SS benefits on this web page that you might find helpful.

https://www.ssa.gov/planners/calculators/

Your original question did not mention an annuity or TSP, so we cannot tell you what will happen with those -- we have no information to go on.  We can only tell you that from a tax standpoint, you receive documents called 1099R's every January for retirement income and you enter your 1099R's into your tax return.

Hopefully your employer can provide some more of the information you need to plan for your retirement.  You have not told us how old you will be when you retire--we do not now how to advise you about some of the issues you are concerned about.  If you are 65 or older, you should be eligible for Medicare when you retire--if you are younger than 65, that is a different issue and you have to figure out what to do regarding medical coverage until you are 65.  Even when you have Medicare, you may still need supplemental coverage and a prescription plan--and those are not things we can advise you about in this income tax forum.

If you have other tax questions we can help with please post back.

[xmasbaby0]

@DEAF4REAL 

Here is some information about the difference between SSI and Social Security benefits--you referred to getting "SSI" but is that what you will be receiving--or will you get Social Security benefits?

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS AND SSI?

https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-over-ussi.htm

[DEAF4REAL]

SSI is supplemental security income. I have the computer-generated annuity estimate print out from the my work. It is shown me the amount of what I get after retire But the problem is I do not know the deductions(taxes, health, etc.)  and that two (annuity and FERS Retirement supplement). FERS (Retirement supplement) is the SSI ? I think so but I'm also get the TSP. I'm 57 and been working for USPS for 34 years. So, the SSI is nothing to worry about taxes? TSP ,did you know what stand for? Thrift Saving Plan. That I get benefit payment too. So I when I retire, I get those three and little bit supplement from Union. So those two that I don't know what amount of and don't know what deductions amount is.

[xmasbaby0]

You really need more information about all of this than we can provide from this forum.   We cannot tell you how much your taxes will be on your retirement income without knowing specific amounts and specific information regarding your filing status and many other variables.  And you have not said when you are going to retire--are you doing that soon or waiting for a few more years?  We cannot possibly tell you what your medical coverage will cost.  There must be someone in Human Resources at work who can answer some of your questions even if you have to communicate via email.  

[xmasbaby0]

@DEAF4REAL You recently tried to message me--please keep all of your questions here in the user forum.  You asked about stopping working on your tax return before you are finished.  You can do that and all of your entries will be saved for when you come back to your account to work on your tax return again when you are using online TurboTax.   It is important to include everything you need on your tax return, and some documents do not arrive in your mailbox until late January/early February, so waiting to e-file is a good idea.

As for transferring 2018 in to 2019's return.  The transfer process has to happen first thing when you are ready to begin your 2019 return--it cannot be done after you have begun to enter 2019 data into the software.  You have to be in exactly the same account that you used for 2018 to be able to transfer in to a 2019 return if you are using online TurboTax.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/entering-importing/help/how-do-i-transfer-last-year-s-return-into-...