"I would also like to see tax on social security income repealed." I agree. It makes no sense to tax social security income. We paid into the Social Security fund via the FICA "Payroll Tax". Now, in retirement, some people are required to pay a tax on the money we paid into the insurance fund via FICA taxes on our income while we were wo…
"I would also like to see tax on social security income repealed." I agree. It makes no sense to tax social security income. We paid into the Social Security fund via the FICA "Payroll Tax". Now, in retirement, some people are required to pay a tax on the money we paid into the insurance fund via FICA taxes on our income while we were working. That seems like double taxation.
One alternative would be for our Congress to appropriate sufficient discretionary spending to meet any shortfall in available FICA income due to changing demographics, instead of taxing us twice on the same income.
For people with little or no savings, the average monthly social security payment is meager. Rents have been trending upwards.
At least one US Senator has been advocating increasing the social security disbursement.
According to the woman who spoke to Democrats Abroad in a webinar on social security for expats, the fund in the USA is actuarily set for the next 75 years. That is it is carefully watched over to ensure that it is fit to meet all obligations for the next 75 years. That it is not are Republican lies that Democrats should not be falling for. That is the USA standard. In Germany it is only 25 years, and the OECD uses 45 years as its actuarial standard. While I don't yet collect social security, it is currently set to cover my lifetime. However, that is only if Trump and his handmaids in the Republican party don't get the majority needed to mess with it. Right now it has a 2.8 trillion dollar accumulated surplus. The money is extremely secure if we continue as we have. What the Republicans are constantly trying to do and did under Trump is 1) cut benefits, so that less social security will be needed and they can transfer it to pay down the deficit (which ironically exists because of the tax breaks Trump and other Republicans have given to the wealthiest among us so that you and I pay more taxes than they do.) 2) They are starving it of money to support people working in SSA so that it makes it hard to get help filing claims and straightening out problems which saves them money too. Money that we paid into it and cannot access. She told us that SSA went from being the best government agency to work for to being the worst, which will mean turnover, time needed to train new hires, etc... which are costs and add to inefficiencies. 3) She told us that undocumented immigrants often pay into the system but do not draw benefits so they contribute to the health of the fund. This is of course unfair and should also be addressed. Overall immigrants contribute heavily to the social security fund and that helps to stimulate our economy. So, we should all be writing our politicians insisting that they pass legislation that 1) expands social security benefits and 2) that exempts this income from taxation, 3) that includes all people who pay into it regardless of documented status. When I get the video from the webinar, I will post the link. I believe it will be on Youtube.
It is why so many of us have looked for cheaper places to live in retirement than in the USA. The downside of living abroad is that as of now one cannot collect medicare abroad. That is another thing that needs to be changed. Still, we have friends that just moved to Lisbon, Portugal as "digital nomads." They told us while we visited them a couple of weeks ago that they are part of the national health insurance which is free. She is currently getting midwife care for her first pregnancy which includes ultra sounds. In Germany one pays around what one would pay for medicare for national health insurance plans at the lowest rate. However, it is hard to get into the national insurance if you have not been here paying all along. They are going to try to push you into private insurance which one should not do. What is cheaper in Germany except for a couple of big cities like Hamburg and Munich, is housing. Food is also much cheaper. Utilities are expensive, but even renters are allowed to hang solar panels from their balconies and tap into the electric grid as both consumers and providers, or to store energy. If you do not insist on owning a car, transportation here is cheaper in most places the public is more than adequate to get you where you need to go with a monthly Germany ticket, which gets you around the country too. I have heard that France is thinking of introducing the same monthly plan. Still, it is shocking that one currently cannot have it all in the USA unless you are getting the high end with 2 incomes, one of which will disappear when a spouse dies. So, that is something that should also be looked at, as well as the fact that businesses are not providing pension, but more like investment opportunities so that your money is put at risk your entire life unless you put it into an annuity, which may have a low yield.
So true, thank you. We did fine until my husband died, then I get hit with a $6,000 tax bill because I am now single. Or so the CPA told me. More withholding so maybe next year will be better, if I live so long. My chat with SSA required a hold time of 71 minutes (after 45 minutes on web site, which finally required a call). Imagine if chump gets in and continues with his “destruction of the administrative state,” as Bannon and chump promised.
I requested a meeting after I picked myself up off the floor. The head of the group called me and said that I had not changed the monthly tax withdrawal amounts so that's why it was so high when I was filling as a single person after 57 years. We had never claimed dependents and always got back a bit. Not a lot but never paid. So in addition to the $6,000, I had $300 a month taken out as well. Ain't widowhood fun...
I am imagining it, and it looks like, someone displeases him as he melts down but he sees the red button and remembers he can use it in a moment of rage tainted lucidity.
I have been writing that we need to learn from Mother Europe! Thanks very much, Linda Weide, for this post. I am pushing Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg for trolleys in cities and both regional and long distance (based on the TGV which I have ridden over much of France)trains. As for medicine, we are so far behind what I experienced in France, thanks mostly to corporate greed which continues to dominate every aspect of American life, that I despair unless we get and keep Democrats in both Houses for 40 years again.
Linda, your description matches very closely what I learned about the Social Security Trust Funds after I retired in 2010. I have not looked at the health of the fund recently (until just now), but I recall that the Treasury Department reports regularly on the actuarial predictions, and the probability that the Trust Funds will be able to pay full benefits.
I have read various commentaries which suggest that Congress could appropriate funding adequate to pay promised benefits to augment the Trust Funds if they ever approach depletion.
I will look for the link to the webinar you mentioned.
Here is a link to US Treasury Department's report on their projections for Social Security to 2097.
(Edit: A day later I see where I made an error in reporting the main import of Treasury's summary: the "d" footnote refers to DI, Disability Insurance, rather than the OASI (Old Age and Survivors Insurance). I apologize for any misapprehension I may have caused.)
"The projected reserve depletion date for the combined OASDI trust funds is 2034, a year earlier than in last year's report.1 Considered on its own, the OASI Trust Fund can pay full benefits until 2033, a year earlier than projected last year. As in last year's report, the DI Trust Fund is projected to be able to pay full benefits through the end of the 75-year projection period (2097 in this year's report)."
However there are two SS Trust Funds, the retirement fund and a disability fund. As of today, the retirement fund outlays are supposed to peak in 2033. If it defaults, it would have to pay a reduced amount.
2033 represents when the baby boom beneficiaries reach their peak. But that is also when the number of expected beneficiaries begin to decline. After 2034, birth rates of later generations flatten and the funds can be solvent.
Social Security protects workers, widow(er)s, orphans and disabled people and is a major investment for many of us.
Please donate to create an endowment to slow down the rate. If everyone who donates to say, universities, which aren't really charities, the trust funds would be secure.
"I would also like to see tax on social security income repealed." I agree. It makes no sense to tax social security income. We paid into the Social Security fund via the FICA "Payroll Tax". Now, in retirement, some people are required to pay a tax on the money we paid into the insurance fund via FICA taxes on our income while we were working. That seems like double taxation.
One alternative would be for our Congress to appropriate sufficient discretionary spending to meet any shortfall in available FICA income due to changing demographics, instead of taxing us twice on the same income.
For people with little or no savings, the average monthly social security payment is meager. Rents have been trending upwards.
At least one US Senator has been advocating increasing the social security disbursement.
According to the woman who spoke to Democrats Abroad in a webinar on social security for expats, the fund in the USA is actuarily set for the next 75 years. That is it is carefully watched over to ensure that it is fit to meet all obligations for the next 75 years. That it is not are Republican lies that Democrats should not be falling for. That is the USA standard. In Germany it is only 25 years, and the OECD uses 45 years as its actuarial standard. While I don't yet collect social security, it is currently set to cover my lifetime. However, that is only if Trump and his handmaids in the Republican party don't get the majority needed to mess with it. Right now it has a 2.8 trillion dollar accumulated surplus. The money is extremely secure if we continue as we have. What the Republicans are constantly trying to do and did under Trump is 1) cut benefits, so that less social security will be needed and they can transfer it to pay down the deficit (which ironically exists because of the tax breaks Trump and other Republicans have given to the wealthiest among us so that you and I pay more taxes than they do.) 2) They are starving it of money to support people working in SSA so that it makes it hard to get help filing claims and straightening out problems which saves them money too. Money that we paid into it and cannot access. She told us that SSA went from being the best government agency to work for to being the worst, which will mean turnover, time needed to train new hires, etc... which are costs and add to inefficiencies. 3) She told us that undocumented immigrants often pay into the system but do not draw benefits so they contribute to the health of the fund. This is of course unfair and should also be addressed. Overall immigrants contribute heavily to the social security fund and that helps to stimulate our economy. So, we should all be writing our politicians insisting that they pass legislation that 1) expands social security benefits and 2) that exempts this income from taxation, 3) that includes all people who pay into it regardless of documented status. When I get the video from the webinar, I will post the link. I believe it will be on Youtube.
It is why so many of us have looked for cheaper places to live in retirement than in the USA. The downside of living abroad is that as of now one cannot collect medicare abroad. That is another thing that needs to be changed. Still, we have friends that just moved to Lisbon, Portugal as "digital nomads." They told us while we visited them a couple of weeks ago that they are part of the national health insurance which is free. She is currently getting midwife care for her first pregnancy which includes ultra sounds. In Germany one pays around what one would pay for medicare for national health insurance plans at the lowest rate. However, it is hard to get into the national insurance if you have not been here paying all along. They are going to try to push you into private insurance which one should not do. What is cheaper in Germany except for a couple of big cities like Hamburg and Munich, is housing. Food is also much cheaper. Utilities are expensive, but even renters are allowed to hang solar panels from their balconies and tap into the electric grid as both consumers and providers, or to store energy. If you do not insist on owning a car, transportation here is cheaper in most places the public is more than adequate to get you where you need to go with a monthly Germany ticket, which gets you around the country too. I have heard that France is thinking of introducing the same monthly plan. Still, it is shocking that one currently cannot have it all in the USA unless you are getting the high end with 2 incomes, one of which will disappear when a spouse dies. So, that is something that should also be looked at, as well as the fact that businesses are not providing pension, but more like investment opportunities so that your money is put at risk your entire life unless you put it into an annuity, which may have a low yield.
So true, thank you. We did fine until my husband died, then I get hit with a $6,000 tax bill because I am now single. Or so the CPA told me. More withholding so maybe next year will be better, if I live so long. My chat with SSA required a hold time of 71 minutes (after 45 minutes on web site, which finally required a call). Imagine if chump gets in and continues with his “destruction of the administrative state,” as Bannon and chump promised.
Did the CPA explain the $6000 tax when your husband died? I am puzzled.
I requested a meeting after I picked myself up off the floor. The head of the group called me and said that I had not changed the monthly tax withdrawal amounts so that's why it was so high when I was filling as a single person after 57 years. We had never claimed dependents and always got back a bit. Not a lot but never paid. So in addition to the $6,000, I had $300 a month taken out as well. Ain't widowhood fun...
I am imagining it, and it looks like, someone displeases him as he melts down but he sees the red button and remembers he can use it in a moment of rage tainted lucidity.
I have been writing that we need to learn from Mother Europe! Thanks very much, Linda Weide, for this post. I am pushing Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg for trolleys in cities and both regional and long distance (based on the TGV which I have ridden over much of France)trains. As for medicine, we are so far behind what I experienced in France, thanks mostly to corporate greed which continues to dominate every aspect of American life, that I despair unless we get and keep Democrats in both Houses for 40 years again.
Linda, your description matches very closely what I learned about the Social Security Trust Funds after I retired in 2010. I have not looked at the health of the fund recently (until just now), but I recall that the Treasury Department reports regularly on the actuarial predictions, and the probability that the Trust Funds will be able to pay full benefits.
I have read various commentaries which suggest that Congress could appropriate funding adequate to pay promised benefits to augment the Trust Funds if they ever approach depletion.
I will look for the link to the webinar you mentioned.
Here is a link to US Treasury Department's report on their projections for Social Security to 2097.
(Edit: A day later I see where I made an error in reporting the main import of Treasury's summary: the "d" footnote refers to DI, Disability Insurance, rather than the OASI (Old Age and Survivors Insurance). I apologize for any misapprehension I may have caused.)
https://www.ssa.gov/policy/trust-funds-summary.html
"The projected reserve depletion date for the combined OASDI trust funds is 2034, a year earlier than in last year's report.1 Considered on its own, the OASI Trust Fund can pay full benefits until 2033, a year earlier than projected last year. As in last year's report, the DI Trust Fund is projected to be able to pay full benefits through the end of the 75-year projection period (2097 in this year's report)."
However there are two SS Trust Funds, the retirement fund and a disability fund. As of today, the retirement fund outlays are supposed to peak in 2033. If it defaults, it would have to pay a reduced amount.
2033 represents when the baby boom beneficiaries reach their peak. But that is also when the number of expected beneficiaries begin to decline. After 2034, birth rates of later generations flatten and the funds can be solvent.
Social Security protects workers, widow(er)s, orphans and disabled people and is a major investment for many of us.
Please donate to create an endowment to slow down the rate. If everyone who donates to say, universities, which aren't really charities, the trust funds would be secure.
https://www.ssa.gov/agency/donations.html
Is this the video?
Social Security works for all Americans (Saving Our Democracy series)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo58N6Ln268
Dont deductions for social security get tax deductions also?