President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is sending mixed messages about whether most Americans are required to pay federal income taxes on their Social Security benefits.
“It’s a mixed bag for seniors, because some seniors will get some tax relief; the cost of that, though, is borne by the entire Social Security system,” Alex Lawson, executive director of left-leaning advocacy organization Social Security Works, told USA Today.
The bill, which Trump signed into law on Saturday, included a $6,000 tax deduction for Americans 65 or older. After Congress passed the bill on Thursday, the Social Security Administration said the legislation “delivers long-awaited tax relief to millions of older Americans.”
“The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries, providing relief to individuals and couples,” the Thursday press release said. “Additionally, it provides an enhanced deduction for taxpayers aged 65 and older, ensuring that retirees can keep more of what they have earned.”
However, policy experts are concerned that the bill does not include a provision to eliminate federal income taxes on Social Security benefits.
“There is no provision in the budget bill that directly ‘eliminates’ or even reduces taxes on Social Security benefits,” Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, told the Washington Post.
Trump’s bill offers a tax deduction of $6,000 to seniors making up to $75,000 individually, or $150,000 on a joint return. The deduction is lowered for incomes above that level and axed for seniors with individual incomes of more than $175,000, or $250,000 jointly. However, the new deduction for seniors is set to expire within a couple of years. The median income for seniors in 2022 was about $30,000.
“The people who benefit by definition have to be richer, and people who benefit the most are the richest people,” Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, told CBS News.
Before the megabill’s passing, 64 percent of seniors receiving Social Security income paid no tax on their Social Security due to exemptions and deductions, according to an estimate by Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers. Under Trump’s megabill, 88 percent won’t be paying.
Marc Goldwein, senior vice president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told the Post that the rise is due to the bill’s increase in “the standard deduction for seniors, which, as a result, reduces the number of seniors who will pay taxes on their Social Security benefits.”
Put simply, the new legislation will provide limited benefits for lower-income seniors because they already pay less in taxes.
“Lower-income earners benefit less than middle and upper-middle income households,” Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, a center-right think tank, told USA Today.
“It’s been marketed as tax relief for seniors, but a lot of seniors are going to be surprised when they find out it doesn’t apply to them,” he added. “I’m getting asked all the time by folks what this actually means for their tax situation.”
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