Retirement and Taxes

[Peggy0406-]

Is it better to retire at the beginning of the year?  I will be 66.5 in October 2023 and debated whether to wait until January 2024.  Any tax advantage/disadvantage?  If I start taking Social Security before I retire, are there age and income limitations?

[MartyG]

Hi Peggy0406!!

So much of life depends on so many different things.  As with this, it depends.  

Depending on how much money you made not counting Social Security in a year, some of your social security benefits will be subject to tax.  So if you fully worked in 2023 up until you started receiving benefits, up to 85% of the social security received will be taxable.

So again, it depends on what you will do.  If you retire in early 2024, and will not be receiving other taxable income, then you will pay less tax on the Social Security Income.  So much depends on your individual situation.

See the following link for more help:

https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/taxes.html#:~:text=between%20%2425%2C000%20and%20%24... 

I hope that helps.  Again, the more money you make, the more your social security is taxed.

Marty