Retirees in These 9 States Risk Losing Some of Their Social Security Checks

3 hours ago 3

Adam Levy, The Motley Fool

Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 1:33 AM 7 min read

Social Security is simply a important constituent of astir American seniors' status budgets. In the astir caller variation of an yearly Gallup poll, 60% of retirees said the authorities programme is simply a large root of income for them. Another 28% said their monthly checks were astatine slightest a insignificant root of income.

Ensuring you support each penny of your Social Security benefits is indispensable if you're 1 of the 60 cardinal Americans collecting status benefits. Unfortunately, retirees successful 9 states hazard losing immoderate of their monthly checks. Their authorities governments volition taxation Social Security benefits based connected their income, cutting however overmuch they get to support by astir 10% successful immoderate cases.

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Here's what you request to know.

Two shocked-looking radical speechmaking documents.

Before we dive into idiosyncratic authorities taxation policies, each elder needs to recognize however the national authorities taxes Social Security benefits.

The IRS uses a metric called "combined income" to find what percentage, if any, of your Social Security benefits are taxable. Combined income is adjacent to fractional your Social Security income positive your adjusted gross income and immoderate untaxed involvement income. If that fig exceeds a definite threshold, up to 85% of your benefits are counted arsenic taxable income for your national taxation return.

Taxable information of benefits

Combined income, individual

Combined income, joined filing jointly

0%	Less than $25,000	Less than $32,000
Up to 50%	Between $25,000 and $34,000	Between $32,000 and $44,000
Up to 85%	More than $34,000	More than $44,000

Data source: Internal Revenue Service.

Seniors who aren't highly cautious astir keeping their adjusted gross income debased could easy find that a important information of their Social Security benefits extremity up arsenic taxable income. That's due to the fact that Congress hasn't adjusted those thresholds for ostentation since enacting them successful the 1980s and 1990s.

As such, much and much seniors are uncovering that they person to wage backmost a information of their Social Security benefits successful taxes. But that occupation is worse for seniors surviving successful 9 states.

The fig of states taxing Social Security benefits has shrunk importantly implicit the years. Residents of Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas precocious received immoderate taxation alleviation aft their governors signed laws eliminating taxes connected benefits effectual arsenic of 2024.

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