How Social Security Benefits Are Taxed by the IRS
Box 5 of Form SSA-1099 shows the net amount of benefits received. Whether any of that may be taxable starts with one comparison.
Benefits may be taxable when one-half of them plus all other income, including tax-exempt interest, is greater than the base amount for your filing status — $25,000 for single filers, $32,000 for joint filers. The taxable portion is included in income. In most cases it is figured with an IRS page, a Form 1040 instructions worksheet or Publication 915.
What Counts as Social Security Benefits
Social Security benefits include monthly retirement, survivor and disability benefits. Supplemental security income (SSI) payments are not included, and they aren’t taxable. Everything below is about the monthly benefits, never about SSI.
The net amount received from the Social Security Administration appears in Box 5 of Form SSA-1099, the Social Security Benefit Statement. That figure is reported on line 6a of Form 1040 or Form 1040-SR, and the taxable portion, where there is one, goes on line 6b.
How much of it is taxable depends on the total amount of income and benefits for the taxable year. Survivor and disability benefits sit inside the same definition. Separate articles cover survivor benefits and disability benefits for heart conditions.
The Test, and the Base Amounts
Benefits may be taxable if the total of one-half of the benefits, plus all other income, including tax-exempt interest, is greater than the base amount for the filing status. Tax-exempt interest sits inside that total.
IRS Tax Tip 2022-22, from February 2022, describes other income as including pensions, wages, interest, dividends and capital gains. That page carries an IRS notice: it is an archival or historical document and may not reflect current law, policies or procedures. The base amounts here come from the current IRS FAQ on Social Security income.
The base amount depends on filing status. It is $25,000 for someone single, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse, and $32,000 for married filing jointly.
On a joint return, both incomes and both sets of benefits are combined — a spouse’s income is added even if that spouse received no benefits at all. Married filing separately works differently, and the last section takes it up.
Children who receive benefits are figured on their own. Taxability is determined using the income of the person entitled to receive the benefits, so a parent’s benefits and a child’s benefits are calculated separately. For a single child, the base amount is $25,000.
The IRS FAQ adds that a child generally won’t have enough additional income for those benefits to become taxable.
The third column below comes from the same 2022 Tax Tip.
Base amounts and the 85% figures — base amounts from the IRS Social Security income FAQ; 85% figures from IRS Tax Tip 2022-22 (February 2022, marked by the IRS as a historical document)
| Filing status | Base amount | Up to 85% of benefits may be taxable above |
|---|---|---|
| Single, head of household or qualifying surviving spouse | $25,000 | $34,000 |
| Married filing separately, lived apart from spouse for the entire year | $25,000 | $34,000 |
| Married filing jointly | $32,000 | $44,000 |
Married filing separately has a second case the table does not show. For someone who lived with their spouse at any time during the tax year, the base amount is $0, per the IRS FAQ, and the 2022 Tax Tip lists that case under “up to 85%.” The Tax Tip also names the first row’s group in its own words: “single, head of household or qualifying widow or widower.”
Figuring and Paying the Taxable Portion
The taxable portion is included in income and used to calculate income tax liability. The percentage figures describe how much of the benefit may be included in income, not what is owed on it.
In most cases the amount is worked out in one of the places the IRS points to: its page “Are my Social Security or railroad retirement tier I benefits taxable?”, a worksheet in the Instructions for Form 1040 (and Form 1040-SR), or Publication 915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits.
Some IRA savers use different worksheets. For someone who made contributions to a traditional IRA for 2025 while they or their spouse were covered by a retirement plan at work or through self-employment, the special worksheets in Appendix B of Publication 590-A cover both questions at once — whether any benefits are taxable, and the IRA deduction.
A lump-sum payment received this year can cover benefits for an earlier year. The taxable part of it still belongs in this year’s income. Returns for those earlier years can’t be amended to reflect it.
There are two ways to determine the amount to include.
One way uses this year’s income to figure the taxable part of the total benefits received this year. The other is an election. It refigures the earlier year’s taxable benefits, lump sum included, using that year’s income, then subtracts any taxable benefits already reported for that year.
What remains is added to this year’s taxable benefits, and those are figured without the part of the lump sum that belongs to the earlier year. The election is made by checking the box on line 6c of Form 1040 or 1040-SR, and it is available where it lowers the taxable portion.
Tax payments can also be spread across the year. Social Security allows a beneficiary to have 7%, 10%, 12% or 22% of the monthly payment withheld for federal income tax, instead of paying the IRS directly.
A missing SSA-1099 can be requested online through a my Social Security account. Replacements are available beginning February 1 for the previous year.
Married Filing Separately, and the 2022 Tax Tip Figures
For married filing separately, one more fact matters: whether the spouses lived together at any point in the year. Someone who lived apart from their spouse for the entire year has a base amount of $25,000, the same as a single filer. Someone who lived with their spouse at any time during the tax year has a base amount of $0.
That $0 line strikes me as the least intuitive part of the test. It changes nothing about the arithmetic — the total is still one-half of benefits plus all other income, including tax-exempt interest. The number it gets compared against is zero.
Above the base amount, part of the benefits may be taxable. The 2022 Tax Tip puts an upper bound on that share: up to 85% of benefits may be taxable for a filer who is single, head of household or qualifying widow or widower with more than $34,000 income.
The same page lists up to 85% for married filing jointly with more than $44,000 income, and for married filing separately who lived apart from their spouse for the entire year with more than $34,000 income. Its list also includes married filing separately and lived with their spouse at any time during the year.
The Tax Tip introduces that list with “may be taxable.” The page carrying it is the archival one, so the figures show how the IRS described the upper end in February 2022.
The test reads the same at the end as at the start: one-half of the benefits, plus all other income, including tax-exempt interest, set against the base amount for the filing status. Where that total is greater, part of the benefits may be taxable. How much is a separate calculation.
This article is general information, not professional advice. For decisions about your money or health, consult a qualified professional.