Tax Year Prior to 2020: I recieve SSI. May I get tax return?

[Tambozcin]

Well can I?

[DoninGA]

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@Tambozcin wrote:

Well can I?

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SSI is Supplemental Security Income and is not from the Social Security Administration. It is designed to help aged, blind, and disabled people, who have little or no income; and. It provides cash to meet basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. SSI is not reported on a tax return.

Social Security Retirement/Disability/Survivors benefits are reported on a form SSA-1099 and the benefits received are to be entered on a federal tax return. The benefits may be taxable depending on the amount of other income you have entered on your tax return.
However, if the Social Security benefits are the Only income to be reported on the tax return, then there is no reason or need to file a tax return.

If Social Security Retirement/Disability/Survivors benefits are the only income you receive then you are not eligible for any type of tax credit on a tax return.  Nor can you get a tax refund if you never had taxes withheld on the benefits you did receive.

[Hal_Al]

SSI (Supplemental Security Income) is frequently confused with SSDI (Social Security Disability Income). SSI is welfare and is never taxable. SSDI is treated just like Social Security Retirement Income: i.e. it may become partially taxable only when added to your other income. 

People with SSI have no reportable income and do not normally need to file a tax return nor get any benefit from doing so.  Social security benefits (including SSDI) only becomes taxable when added to sufficient other income.  Most  SSDI recipients do not normally need to file a tax return nor get any benefit from doing so.  

But, along comes "stimulus" payments, to mess up "normally".  If you were not someone else's dependent (or qualified to be someone's dependent), you are entitled to  2020 and 2021 stimulus payments.  If you did not get them (you had to use the non-filer tool at IRS.gov), you can still get them, in the form of "recovery rebate" credits, by filing a 2020 return.  The 2020  recovery rebate credit ($1200 + 600 = $1800)  will be your 2020 refund and the filing of a 2020 return will cause the IRS to send you the $1400 2021 stimulus (if  you don't get it,  filing a 2021 tax return in early 2022 will get you the 2021 recovery rebate credit). 

[Beckiebagby]

If I receive SSI ans social security what is the best way to file taxes with a dependent 

[DianeW777]

The SSI is not taxable  and does not get listed on the tax return at all.  The social security should be entered and will not be taxable if you don't have other income.  

• Search (upper right) > ssa1099 > Click the Jump to ... Link and begin to enter 

Add your dependent on your tax return if you qualify and file your return.  

• Who can I claim as a dependent?

Please update here if you have more questions.

[Hal_Al]

It depends on how old is your dependent and how  they are related to you.  

There are two types of dependents, "Qualifying Children"(QC) and Other ("Qualifying Relative" in IRS parlance even though they don't have to actually be related). There is no income limit for a QC but there is an age limit, student status, a relationship test and residence test. Only a QC qualifies a taxpayer for the Earned Income Credit and the Child Tax Credit. They are interrelated but the rules are different for each.

The support test is different for each type. The support test, for a QC, is only that the child didn't provide more than half his own support. The support test for a Qualifying Relative is that the taxpayer provided more than half the relative's support.  A Qualifying relative only qualifies you for a $500 non refundable credit.  If your only income is SSI & SS, you are unlikely to have a tax liability to take a credit against. 

.A child closely related to a taxpayer can be a “Qualifying Child (QC)” dependent, regardless of the child's income, if:

1. He is under age 19, or under 24 if a full time student for at least 5 months of the year, or  is totally & permanently disabled
2. He did not provide more than 1/2 his own support
3. He lived with the relative (including temporary absences) for more than half the year
4. He is younger than the relative (not applicable for a disabled child)
5. If the child meets the rules to be a qualifying child of more than one person, you must be the person entitled to claim the child as a qualifying child (this essentially means that you have the parent’s permission to claim the child, if the child also lived with the parent more than half the year)
6. If the parents of a child can claim the child as a qualifying child but no parent so claims the child, no one else can claim the child as a qualifying child unless that person's adjusted gross income (AGI) is higher than the highest AGI of any of the child's parents who can claim the child.

See full dependent rules at: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Family/Rules-for-Claiming-a-Dependent-on-Your-Tax-Ret...

[Lisa Shaw]

I receive SSI am I eligible I the tax benefit this year that gov kemp is sending out to Georgia?

[SweetieJean]

Please contact the State of Georgia tax dept and ask them.

HB 1302 Tax Refund FAQs | Georgia Department of Revenue