Social security

[Spiritofeagles1]

I have heard two different answer to my question. I’ve heard you don’t have to worry about taxes on social security with a traditional Ira distribution and I’ve heard you do have to pay taxes if you take distributions! And I do file taxes being single. Which is true?

[DoninGA]

There are no Social Security or Medicare taxes withheld on an IRA distribution.  The distribution is taxable income on federal tax return.  You can request that the IRA plan administrator have federal income taxes withheld on the IRA distribution by completing a Form W-4P.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4p.pdf

[Opus 17]

You have not gotten different answers, I think you are confused.

If social security benefits are your only income, they are not taxable.  If you have other taxable income from any source, then your benefits may also be taxable.  A traditional IRA is other taxable income. The formula is complicated, you may want to see these IRS pages.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/dont-forget-social-security-benefits-may-be-taxable

[KochuK]

Social security can be taxable up to 85% depending on your filing status and other income, which includes a Traditional IRA distribution.

Please refer to IRS pub 915, Worksheet 1 Figuring Your Taxable Benefits

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p915#en_US_2020_publink1000293181 

Then we have to factor in Single Standard Deduction and other credits that might be available to you. 

Please refer to TurboTax Tax Calculator for better result.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/ 

Hope this helps. Thank you for your question.