{"id":451,"date":"2013-03-01T19:28:57","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T19:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/?p=451"},"modified":"2022-06-22T16:45:52","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T16:45:52","slug":"irs-notice-regarding-social-security-benefits-and-your-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/irs-notice-regarding-social-security-benefits-and-your-taxes","title":{"rendered":"IRS Notice Regarding Social Security Benefits and Your Taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

IRS Notice Regarding Social Security Benefits and Your Taxes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some people must pay taxes on their Social Security benefits. If you get Social Security, you should receive a Form SSA-1099, Social Security Benefit Statement, by early February. The form shows the amount of benefits you received in 2012.<\/p>\n

Here are five tips from the IRS to help you determine if your benefits are taxable:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0The amount of your income and your filing status affect whether you must pay taxes on your Social Security.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0If Social Security was your only income in 2012, your benefits are probably not taxable. You also may not need to file a federal income tax return.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0If you received income from other sources, then you may have to pay taxes on your benefits.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0You can follow these two quick steps to see if your benefits are taxable:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Add one-half of the Social Security benefits you received to all your other income, including tax-exempt interest. Tax-exempt interest includes interest from state and municipal bonds.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Next, compare this total to the \u2018base amount\u2019 for your filing status. If the total is more than your base amount, then some of your benefits may be taxable.<\/p>\n

The three 2012 base amounts are:<\/strong><\/p>\n

$25,000<\/strong> for single, head of household, qualifying widow or widower with a dependent child or married individuals filing separately who did not live with their spouse at any time during the year;<\/p>\n

$32,000 <\/strong>for married couples filing jointly; and<\/p>\n

$0 <\/strong>for married persons filing separately who lived together at any time during the year.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0If you use IRS e-file to prepare and file your tax return, the tax software will figure your taxable benefits for you. If you file a paper return, you can use the Interactive Tax Assistant tool on the IRS website to check if your benefits are taxable. The ITA is a resource that can help answer tax law questions. There also is a worksheet in the instructions for Form 1040 or 1040A that you can use to figure your taxable benefits.<\/p>\n

For more information on the taxability of Social Security benefits, see IRS Publication 915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits. You can get a copy of this booklet on IRS.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).<\/p>\n

Copyright 2013 Phillips Law Offices, A Professional Corporation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IRS Notice Regarding Social Security Benefits and Your Taxes Some people must pay taxes on their Social Security benefits. If you get Social Security, you should receive a Form SSA-1099, Social Security Benefit Statement, by early February. The form shows the amount of benefits you received in 2012. Here are five tips from the IRS … Continue reading IRS Notice Regarding Social Security Benefits and Your Taxes<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tax-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1123,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451\/revisions\/1123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pleasantonestateplanninglawyer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}