I Say Do Not Tax Social Security Income

[DIRTYSECRET]

A good election topic Trump should run on. Peel off more of the gummers. Clinton got away with raising the tax in 93'. That was 3 years before the following election. It will mostly benefit those with retirement accounts already but it could add $4k/yr to a whole lot of seniors. Trump will win anyways. I say apply the couple gras. The whacko left needs to be put out off it's misery now not in 2024.

[Vermont Lt]

Why didn’t you save before you retired?

The government should spend money telling people SS is supposed to supplement their retirement income.

Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?

[Chauncey Gardiner]

Get rid of the penalties and income related adjustments. Got a letter from SS that I got a raise. Couple weeks later they “adjusted” my SS income DOWNWARD because of what I earned in 2018. Net result was a DECREASE! This is theft; the government has no business stealing from what I earned thru my contributions. Better yet, establish an option for a privatized version and let me manage it.

[HangnJudge]

...but my budget says work until 70.

Where have I heard that “3 Score and 10” Thingy?

[DIRTYSECRET]

What will the gummers spend that extra money on? Give it to the kids? Since you can’t take it with you when you croak my choice would be young women.

[dp0622]

lol

I like the idea floated about a 10 buck donation to FR if you post a vanity.

For all my babbling, I’ve yet to post one in 20 years.

I will soon :)

[desertfreedom765]

I agree. Taxing SS is just really means testing the program.

If you work too much then they take it away.

I know a few people on SS that are under 65. When they hit the tax line they stop working for the year.

[babble-on]

Why should there be any taxes at all. The government could just give everyone checks, and not those piker checks like Yang is talking about. Giver everyone a million dollars every year. Then we’ll all be super rich.

[hal ogen]

I want a printing press..free paper...and ink.

[DoodleDawg]

End all income tax altogether. Just think how much support that will generate for Trump?

[babble-on]

Yeah, we could all just print our own money as we see fit. I see no problems that could arise.

[gathersnomoss]

A cup of grass? What?

[Mariner]

“I agree, no tax on SS.”

Only the rich pay taxes on SS.

The left would rot in the gutters of hell before they would allow such a thing to happen.

[IamConservative]

I always thought taxing SS was the dumbest thing and so typical of the government.

[b4its2late]

Well, it was Clinton/Gore that came up with that brilliant idea. So we see why it is so dumb and what dummies to blame.

[shelterguy]

“”””””’Why didn’t you save before you retired?

The government should spend money telling people SS is supposed to supplement their retirement income.

Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?””””””””

I assume you are young and perhaps a little sheltered.

I worked hard my whole life. Saved money, was frugal, paid my bills.

I am now almost retirement age. I no longer have any savings or a lot of other assets due to having a son with terminal cancer and a wife with Stage 4 cancer.

I was self employed for 40 years so I paid both the employee and the employers portion into SS for all those years.

I will be the first in line for MY money the minute I become eligible.

[cuban leaf]

I need to pay off my house before I quit. Probably sometime this year.

[Vigilanteman]

They taxed your "contributions" as taxable income even if the contributions weren't voluntary. Should be the same principle as the Roth 401(K)-- no tax on withdrawals.

Although it might be fun to put congress in a dilemma-- no tax coming out or no tax on "contributions" going in. Which will it be?

[NohSpinZone]

Agree with this. It’s a form of double taxation like the death tax, especially for self-employed types like me who pay both ends of the payroll tax. Also taxing social security discourages healthy seniors from working. It’s ridiculous.

[Larry Lucido]

Couple of Coupe deVilles on grass.

[Billthedrill]

I agree it doesn't make a lot of sense to tax SS distributions as income since that's where they came from in the first place, but it is as close to means testing as we're likely to see in the near future. Effectively it puts those of us who did manage to save an adequate retirement in the position of taking less so that others not in that situation can take more, (which is as socialistic as it sounds), but the fact that SS has limited means in the face of growing needs and diminishing contributions seems to me to be pretty well established. Population dynamics and plunder on the part of the Clinton administration have placed SS in this position. (Clinton apologists who claim proudly that they "balanced the budget" are notably reticent in stating how.)

It sucks, yes, and it also sucks to be a Millennial facing student debt in amounts that my generation never faced. That problem is taking us toward a level of unfairness that dwarfs the SS taxation, IMHO, just as inevitably. What do we tell the ones who worked their way through school or have paid their student debts when we erase those of their peers with a wave of the magic federal wand? (Aside, of course, from "Sorry for tanking your economy.") A "fair" solution to that one appears to me to be just as unreachable. I would be grateful for correction on both topics.