topic Re: Social Security tax calculation in Retirement tax questions

Social Security tax calculation

prather316 — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 01:40:05 GMT

The tax calculation for my social security tax is not calculating correctly

Re: Social Security tax calculation

rjs — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 01:57:54 GMT

Your post is very vague. Are you talking about the Social Security tax deducted from your pay, or in box 4 of your W-2, or do you mean the taxable amount of Social Security benefits on your tax return?

If you are talking about your W-2, what are the exact amounts in boxes 3, 4, and 7 of the W-2? What do you think is wrong?

If you are talking about your tax return, what is the exact amount in box 5 of your Form SSA-1099? What are the exact amounts on your Form 1040 or 1040-SR lines 6a and 6b? What do you think is wrong?

Re: Social Security tax calculation

sureshbk — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 13:54:02 GMT

https://thefinancebuff.com/social-security-taxable-calculator.html

Take a look at this calculator.

Social Security will be taxes between 50% to 85%. We cannot take that as 0 taxable income.

This is were the turbo tax failed to calculation properly.

Re: Social Security tax calculation

DoninGA — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:19:22 GMT

@sureshbk After you completed entry of the SSA-1099 for the Social Security benefits received in 2025, there was a following screen asking you if you lived in any of the foreign countries listed. If you selected Yes or skipped over this screen, the TurboTax program would not have calculated any taxes on your Social Security benefits entered on the Form 1040 Line 6a. Resulting in a 0 being entered on Form 1040 Line 6b.

Re: Social Security tax calculation

rjs — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 15:48:43 GMT

@sureshbk

You wrote: "Social Security will be taxes between 50% to 85%."

That is not correct. The percentage of your Social Security benefits that is taxable can be anywhere from 0% to 85%. The only absolutely certain way to calculate the taxable amount of your Social Security benefits is to use the IRS worksheets. Note that the calculator that you referenced mentions some situations that it does not handle.

However, if your Form 1040 or 1040-SR in TurboTax has zero on line 6b, the most likely explanation is that you made the error that DoninGA described above.