topic Prior year taxable Social Security error in Retirement tax questions

Prior year taxable Social Security error

speakehouseholdt — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 13:53:28 GMT

During Smart Check, it's says "Earlier year taxable SS benefits for taxpayer should not be greater than zero", but we filed joint & my husband had 20K taxable SS last yr.

Re: Prior year taxable Social Security error

MonikaK1 — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 16:34:04 GMT

The question regarding earlier year taxable social security benefits for the taxpayer is referring to the situation where you received a lump-sum payment of Social Security in the current year (2022) that included benefits for prior years.

If you received a lump sum payment in a prior year and it was already reported on your tax return for that year, you do not need to enter any information about it on your 2022 tax return. You would only enter information in 2022 for lump sum payments received in 2022.

Please see this help article for more information regarding lump-sum Social Security payments and this thread for another discussion of this issue.

Re: Prior year taxable Social Security error

speakehouseholdt — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 17:11:27 GMT

If I understand your answer correctly, I believe you're saying if there is an amount on Line 6b in 2021 that I must have already reported the lump sum in 2021. However, I was still working in 2021 and my husband had the taxable SS income. I retired at the end of 2021, so received SS in 2022. They told me I had been eligible to retire earlier, so offered the lump sum for 2021 in 2022. Therefore, because we've been filing joint returns, the amount on Line 6b in 2021 was my husband's earnings, not mine. There is an asterisk on the Box 3 amount of my 2022 SSA-1099 which is explained at the bottom of the form saying "Includes $xxx - Paid in 2022 for 2021". So do you still think I should have put 0 on the Earlier Lump Sum Social Security Worksheet?

Re: Prior year taxable Social Security error

speakehouseholdt — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 17:32:04 GMT

Now I understand! On the thread you sent, one of the experts replied to basically the same question I had asked: That the question on the form is referring to if any of the lump sum I received in the current year (not my husband) was reported in the previous year. So yes, that should be zero - even though there is an amount on the 2021 Line 6B return, it's my husband's, not anything to do with my lump sum received in 2022. Thank you for everything!