Did you know there's an IRS formula that decides how much of your Social Security counts as taxable income — and most people have never actually seen it?
It's called provisional income: your adjusted gross income, plus any tax-exempt interest, plus half of your Social Security benefit.
Cross the first threshold — $32,000 married filing jointly, $25,000 single — and part of your benefit may become taxable. Cross the next one — $44,000 married, $34,000 single — and up to 85% of your benefit may be counted as taxable income. Those thresholds were set back in 1983 and have never been adjusted for inflation, so more retirees drift across them every year.
The 2025 tax law added a new senior deduction that changed the math for a lot of people — but it didn't touch the formula itself. Whether it helps your situation depends entirely on your own numbers.
In this short clip, we walk through how the calculation actually works — and a couple of things worth reviewing with a qualified tax professional before your income sources are locked in.
𝘌𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 — 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘹 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦. 𝘛𝘢𝘹 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴.
