Social Security Withholdings

[taxman1000]

Have been using Turbotax for more than a decade (file joint returns with my wife). During that time, my wife has been a 50% owner in a side business which is a NJ LLC  that has no employees (not her full-time job). We have reported her income from this business based on the K-1 generated each year (also file the LLC taxes using Turbotax).  We just recently reviewed her annual social security contributions over the past 10 years (from the gov't website) and found that none of the taxes paid on that side income have been included in her social security earnings which only reflect what she contributed through her full-time job, i.e. annual amounts withheld by social security match the deductions on her W-2.  Very concerned about this since it will significantly impact the amount she will receive from social security when she eventually retires and collects.  Can anyone offer guidance on how we can determine why this has happened and whether we can fix this problem?  Many thanks.

[guywong]

Income from actively participated LLC's treated as partnerships are subject to self-employment tax if reported correctly.  On the K-1, there is a box under Part II if the taxpayer is a General Partner or LLC member-manager (Box G).  If you answer that question in TurboTax correctly, TurboTax will generate a Schedule SE for the taxpayer to pay self-employment tax.  SE tax is 15.3% of self-employment income.

I can only assume your wife did not pay any self-employment tax and that's the reason her SSA annual statement doesn't show her income from the LLC.  If your wife did pay SE taxes for all those years, then contact SSA ASAP and get the error corrected.  SSA will probably need her Schedules SE for each of the last ten years.  I don't recall ever seeing SSA making such errors though.