How much of my Social Security will be taxed?
Up to 85% of your benefit can be taxable, and the share rises as your other income rises. In the middle range, extra income is taxed twice: once on itself and once because it makes more benefit taxable.
Your result
What you can do about it
- Qualified Roth withdrawals are not part of adjusted gross income, so they do not raise provisional income.
- Traditional IRA withdrawals and Roth conversions do raise it. Spreading them across years can keep more benefit untaxed.
- Tax-exempt interest still counts.
How we calculated it
- Provisional income = other income + tax-exempt interest + half of your benefits.
- Up to the first base amount none is taxable; between the two base amounts, half of the excess is taxable.
- Above the second base amount, 85% of the excess plus a fixed amount is taxable, capped at 85% of your benefits.
Simplified. Assumes you did not repay benefits and have no foreign income or other special items; married filing separately follows different rules. Many states do not tax Social Security, but some do.
Common questions
How much of my Social Security is taxable?
Between 0% and 85%, depending on your provisional income: your other income plus tax-exempt interest plus half of your benefits. Below the base amount none is taxable.
What are the base amounts?
$25,000 (single) and $32,000 (married filing jointly) for the 50% tier, and $34,000 and $44,000 for the 85% tier. These are set by law and are not adjusted for inflation.
What is the tax torpedo?
Between the base amounts, each extra dollar of income also makes more Social Security taxable, so your tax rate on that extra dollar can be up to 1.85 times your bracket rate.
Are Roth withdrawals counted?
Qualified Roth withdrawals are not part of adjusted gross income, so they do not raise provisional income. Traditional IRA withdrawals and Roth conversions do.