Help with My Social Security.com

We’ve talked about it before, so hopefully you already know that you can  log on to the Social Security website to access your account.  On this website you can view the information that the Social Security Administration (SSA) has on record for you.  You can also access your Social Security Estimated Benefits where you can […]

Most people can first claim their Social Security retirement benefit at age 62, which is younger than the Full Retirement Age (FRA).  The Social Security Administration (SSA) isn’t too thrilled with folks if they claim their benefit before their FRA, so to encourage people to wait, the SSA allows additional claiming options if they do, […]

Social Security Check OK… technically the Social Security Administration (SSA) doesn’t send checks out any more; they use electronic deposits.  If you’re expecting your SS retirement benefit however, it would be nice to know when you’ll get your money, right? Before you can receive your benefit, you have to file for it, and the very […]

Social Security was originally designed to replace a portion of your income after you retire.  Yet for a variety of reasons many people file for their Social Security retirement benefits early while continuing to work.  Depending on what age you file for your benefits and how much you earn in wages while collecting Social Security, […]

Question from this week deals with the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provisions of Social Security, and more specifically how they apply when the affected spouse passes away.  We received the following question from a reader: “My husband recently passed away at the age of 67.  He mostly worked for […]

Springtime always leads to lots of tax questions.  Just ask your friendly, neighborhood tax accountant…  Our practice is the same since so many retirement planning decisions have a tax ramification.  In the past month or so we have gotten a few questions on taxes related to Social Security so I thought we could cover them […]

Today I bring you what turns out to be a bit of a tragic story.  We had a reader contact us who had been denied Survivor Benefits, even after an appeal, on the grounds that the deceased had not earned enough QCs (Quarters of Coverage) to become “fully insured”. Quarter of Coverage In summary, a […]

This week a reader who is eligible for both a Survivor benefit as well as their own Retirement benefit asked which one they should claim, and if they should switch at some future date.  They also added that their Survivor benefit was about 60% higher than their own Retirement benefit and they are currently age […]

In honor of Tax Day April 18th this year, we’re revisiting a topic we blogged about back in 2014: the taxation of Social Security benefits. Social Security Act of 1983 Prior to 1983, Social Security Benefits were expressly excluded from federal income taxation under Treasury Department Tax Rulings.  This all changed with the amendments to […]

Once again this week we have a question from the public.  This time it is regarding a transition from widow’s benefits to one’s own retirement benefit.  The question is: “I just turned 66 and have been collecting widow’s benefits for quite some time.  I’ve heard if I file and suspend my own retirement benefits before […]