United States citizens who collect only a Social Security Administration check as their sole source of income do not usually have to worry about paying taxes. However, it all depends on each individual situation, which is why we cannot forget that taxes are something that Americans must always pay, or at least in most cases.
If we take into account that we have only recently started collecting checks, it is possible that we still have some doubts about it, since it is something new for us. But the truth is that by collecting just the Social Security check we would not pay taxes in many occasions, although it is true that we might have to pay depending on many different factors.
Do I have to pay taxes on my Social Security?
First of all, it is good to keep in mind that each case is completely individual. If we do not get any payments other than a Social Security check, we may not have to pay taxes, but if we have any other type of income, things change completely.
In the case of getting Supplemental Security Income, for example, nothing would change, since this benefit is not taxable. Thus, we must always keep in mind that Social Security benefits will be taxable only if the total of half of your benefit plus the rest of your income is greater than the base of your filling status.
For clarity, the base amount for the filling status depends on the following categories:
- Single, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse: $25,000.
- Married filing separately and lived apart from your spouse for the entire year: $25,000.
- Married filing jointly: $32,000.
- Married filing separately and lived with your spouse at any time during the tax year: $0.
So we can’t forget to double check all of this information so that we don’t make a direct mistake when we send in our Tax Return once we start collecting our Social Security check.
What will be the largest Social Security check in 2025?
When you consider that next year’s COLA in 2025 could increase Social Security benefits by about 2.5%, we will have record numbers never before seen for retirees. Thus, the new checks will have new highs, although that doesn’t mean that all beneficiaries will reach a very large figure.
Citizens who apply for an age retirement check and have reached the maximum Social Security figure will be able to have $4,994 per month. On the other hand, those citizens with a disability benefit will not be able to get such a large check, but they will be able to have a larger payment than this year 2024.
In this sense, disability retirees could have a maximum payment of $3,917 per month. Even if we do not have the maximum payment we will get the COLA anyway, so our payment for next year 2025 will increase no matter what amount we are collecting this year, which will cause us to have to revise the table for which we pay annual taxes. Anyways, we still have to wait to know the exact COLA 2025.