How Much of My Social Security Benefits Is Taxable?

[Updated on July 20, 2025 to include tax calculation with the $6,000 senior deduction from the 2025 Trump tax law.]

Social Security benefits are 100% tax-free when your total income is low. As your total income goes up, you’ll pay federal income tax on a portion of the benefits while the rest of your Social Security income remains tax-free. This taxable portion goes up as your total income rises, but it will never exceed 85%. Even if your annual total income is $1 million, at least 15% of your Social Security benefits will stay tax-free.

The new 2025 Trump tax law created a $6,000 senior deduction, but it didn’t change anything in how Social Security is taxed. See Social Security Is Still Taxed Under the New 2025 Trump Tax Law. This calculator has been updated to include the new $6,000 senior deduction.

Taxation of Social Security Benefits

The IRS has a somewhat complex formula to determine how much of your Social Security is taxable and how much of it is tax-free. The formula first calculates a combined income that consists of half of your benefit plus your other income, such as withdrawals from your retirement accounts, interest, dividends, and capital gains. It also adds any tax-exempt interest from muni bonds.

This income is then reduced by above-the-line deductions such as deductible contributions to Traditional IRAs, SEP-IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, HSAs, deductible self-employment tax, and self-employment health insurance. Finally, this provisional income goes through some thresholds based on your tax filing status (Married Filing Jointly or Single/Head of Household). All of these steps are in Worksheet 1 in IRS Publication 915.

Calculator

You can go through the 19 steps in the worksheet to calculate the amount of Social Security benefits that will be taxable, but the worksheet isn’t the easiest to use. I made an online calculator that helps you calculate it much more quickly. It only needs three numbers plus your age and tax filing status. You’ll have your answer with the click of a button.

The calculator works for all types of Social Security benefits. It doesn’t matter whether you’re receiving Social Security retirement benefits, disability benefits, spousal benefits, or survivor benefits as a widow or widower. It doesn’t matter whether you’re receiving your full Social Security benefits, or you’re getting reduced benefits because you claimed early, or you’re getting the maximum benefit because you waited until age 70.

The calculator works for both a single person and a married couple filing a joint return. If you’re married and both of you are receiving Social Security, include both your benefit and your spouse’s benefit, and both your income and your spouse’s income.

If you’re on Medicare, the Social Security Administration automatically deducts the Medicare premium from your Social Security benefits. You need to use the “gross” Social Security benefits before deducting the Medicare premium, and it should be an annual number, not monthly. You can find this number on your Social Security benefit statement or your Form SSA-1099.

It only applies to federal taxes though. State taxes don’t necessarily follow the same rules as the federal government. Different states have different rules on taxing Social Security benefits. Some states don’t tax Social Security benefits.

The calculated tax amount assumes that all your other income besides Social Security is fully taxable, and you take only the standard deduction and the senior deduction when eligible. It doesn’t consider lower tax rates on qualified dividends and long-term capital gains, or tax-exempt muni bond interest. Your tax may be lower if you have those, or if you donate to charities or have large itemized deductions.

If you don’t quite trust my calculator, you can double-check against the official calculator from the IRS. The IRS calculator isn’t as easy to use. It gives the same result for the taxable amount at the end, but it doesn’t include the tax estimate.

Taxable Does Not Necessarily Mean Paying Taxes

The calculator shows the taxable portion of your Social Security benefits. Having a taxable amount only means it will be included as part of your gross income on your tax return. It does not necessarily mean you’ll pay taxes.

Your gross income is still subject to your normal standard or itemized deductions to arrive at your taxable income. You still pay in your normal tax brackets of 10%, 12%, 22%, etc., on the taxable income. 50% or 85% of your benefits being taxable doesn’t mean you’ll lose 50% or 85% of your Social Security to taxes. The actual tax on your benefits is much less. The tax may be zero after applying deductions.

When more than 15% of your Social Security is tax-free, additional income outside Social Security will make more of your Social Security benefits taxable, lowering that number toward 15%. Some people call this a tax torpedo, but it’s a misleading term. It gives you the impression that Social Security is taxed more heavily than other income, which is not true. You still pay lower taxes than other people with the same income. See why that’s the case in An Unusually High Marginal Tax Rate Means Paying Lower Taxes.