Are Social Security Benefits Taxable at Age 62?

Taxation of Social Safety

The earliest you could start amassing Social Safety retirement advantages is at age 62, although many individuals wait till a later age to be able to acquire bigger profit quantities. Nevertheless, age has nothing to do with whether or not these advantages are taxable by the Inside Income Service (IRS). Whether or not your advantages might be topic to federal taxation relies on the quantity of any further taxable revenue chances are you’ll obtain. Some states additionally assess taxes on Social Safety advantages.

Key Takeaways

  • Social Safety advantages might or might not be taxed after 62, relying largely on different revenue earned.
  • These solely receiving Social Safety advantages wouldn’t have to pay federal revenue taxes. 
  • If receiving different revenue, you have to evaluate your revenue to the IRS threshold to find out in case your advantages are taxable. 
  • Eleven states tax Social Safety advantages in some method, as of 2022.

How To Decide if Social Safety Advantages Are Taxable

Folks whose solely supply of revenue is Social Safety wouldn’t have to pay federal revenue taxes on their advantages. Nevertheless, in the event that they obtain different sources of revenue, together with tax-exempt curiosity revenue, they need to add one-half of their annual Social Safety advantages to their different revenue after which evaluate the end result to a threshold set by the IRS. If the whole is greater than the IRS threshold, a few of their Social Safety advantages are taxable.

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For 2022 the edge quantity is $25,000 for singles and $32,000 for married {couples} submitting collectively. Married {couples} who dwell collectively however file individually have a threshold of $0 and should pay taxes on Social Safety advantages no matter different revenue earned.

The system for calculating your mixed revenue consists of including your adjusted gross revenue (AGI) plus nontaxable curiosity plus half of your Social Safety advantages. Your different revenue, which is included in AGI, can come from a part-time job or withdrawals from a 401(ok) plan or conventional particular person retirement account (IRA). 

Extra particularly, Social Safety advantages are taxed as follows:

  • As much as 50% of Social Safety advantages are taxed on revenue from $25,001 to $34,000 for people or $32,001 to $44,000 for married {couples} submitting collectively. 
  • As much as 85% of advantages are taxable if the revenue stage is greater than $34,000 for people or $44,000 for {couples}. 
Taxable Social Safety Revenue
Submitting Standing Revenue Threshold  P.c Taxable
Single, Head of Family Qualifying Widow/Widower Married, Submitting Individually (spouses lived aside for the entire tax 12 months) $25,000 or much less 0%
Single, Head of Family Qualifying Widow/Widower Married, Submitting Individually (spouses lived aside for the entire tax 12 months) $25,001 to $34,000 As much as 50%
Single, Head of Family Qualifying Widow/Widower Married, Submitting Individually (spouses lived aside for the entire tax 12 months) Greater than $34,000 As much as 85%
Married, Submitting Collectively $32,000 or much less 0%
Married, Submitting Collectively $32,001 to $44,000 As much as 50%
Married, Submitting Collectively Greater than $44,000 As much as 85% 
Married, Submitting Individually (spouses lived collectively at any time through the tax 12 months) $0 As much as 85%

You’ll by no means pay taxes on greater than 85% of your Social Safety advantages.

States That Tax Social Safety Advantages

The variety of states that tax Social Safety advantages has been decreased lately. Iowa phased out the taxes in 2014. North Dakota ended the follow in 2021, and Colorado has stopped it starting with the 2022 tax 12 months. Solely these 11 states tax Social Safety advantages below sure circumstances:

  • Connecticut
  • Kansas
  • Minnesota
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • New Mexico
  • Rhode Island
  • Utah
  • Vermont
  • West Virginia

These states tax Social Safety advantages with various strategies, which might embrace utilizing AGI or different figures. New Mexico permits folks 65 and older to take an $8,000 deduction on their taxable revenue, which in fact might embrace Social Safety advantages.

How A lot Tax Do You Pay on Social Safety at Age 62?

The quantity of tax you have to pay in your Social Safety advantages has nothing to do together with your age. As a substitute, it’s decided by the quantity of different taxable revenue you might have.

What Are the Disadvantages of Taking Social Safety at Age 62?

The primary drawback to taking Social Safety advantages at age 62 is that the scale of your cost is decreased by 30% (for these born in 1960 or later). In case your month-to-month nut is difficult so that you can make, this may very well be an actual downside. For annually you wait after your full retirement age (which is 67 for these born in 1960 or later), your cost will improve by 8%, till you attain 70, at which level the will increase stop. In the end, it’s a trade-off. Will having much less cash however getting it earlier be higher for you than having more cash later? It’s largely a query of life expectancy. For those who dwell lengthy sufficient, you’ll attain some extent the place the whole quantity you may have acquired equals out.

Who Can Keep away from Paying Taxes on Their Social Safety?

In case your solely revenue is your Social Safety advantages, none of it’s topic to federal taxes. Nevertheless, when you have different revenue sources, you need to add half your Social Safety revenue to that different revenue and see if it reaches an revenue threshold. For single filers, it is $25,00 or much less; for married {couples} submitting collectively, it rises to $34,000. Eleven states tax Social Safety advantages, every in response to its personal guidelines.

The Backside Line

How a lot of your Social Safety retirement advantages is topic to federal taxation is unrelated to your age, so 62 shouldn’t be some magic tax quantity. As a substitute, 62 is the age at which you might be first eligible to obtain advantages. What determines the quantity of advantages topic to taxation is no matter further taxable revenue you might have. There are additionally 11 states that tax Social Safety advantages.