Are you social security benefit taxable? If any, how much? This depends on your total income and marital status.  Generally, if Social Security benefits were your only income, your benefits are not taxable, and your probably do not need to file a federal income tax return.

If you received income from other sources, your benefits will not be taxed unless your modified adjusted gross income is more than the base amount for your filing status. Here is what you you need to know about the federal income tax on social security benefits.

Calculate Your Provisional Income

To determine whether some of your benefits may be taxable, you need to calculate your provisional income first. The provisional income is your modified AGI number without consideration of the social security benefits and add the following items:

• 50% of your social security benefits
• tax exempt interest (line 8b of form 1040)
• Exclusion amount of interest on U.S. savings bonds used to pay for qualified college expenses (form 8815)
• Exclusion amount of adoption assistance from your employer (form 8839)
• Exclusion amount of foreign earned income and housing allowances (form 2555)
• Exclusion amount of income from Puerto Rico or U.S. possessions (4563)
• Student loan interest deduction (line 33 on form 1040)
• Tuition and fees from form 8917 (line 34 on form 1040)
• Domestic production activities deduction from form 8903 (line 35 on form 1040)
• Other write-in on line on line 36 (form 1040)

Base Amounts

Once you know your provision income, compare it to the base amount for your filing status. If the provision income is more than your base amount, some of your benefits may be taxable.

*Married couples who file separate tax returns have two different methods for computing the taxable portion of their Social Security benefits.
For married couples who lived in the same household at any time during the year, their base amount is zero. Up to 85% of their benefits will be subject to tax.
For married couple who lived apart from each other for the entire year, they can use a base amount of $25,000 and the additional income amount of $34,000 for computing the taxable portion of their benefits.

Find Your Tax Situation

If your provisional income is below the base amounts for your filing status, then your Social Security benefits are completely non-taxable.

If you provisional income is between the base amount and the additional amount, then half of your Social Security benefits over the base amount are taxable.

If your provisional income is over the additional amount, then 85% of your Social Security benefits over the additional amount are taxable.

The taxable portion of your Social Security benefits is limited to 85% of your total benefits.

Taxable Social Security Calculation

While you now know if your social security benefits are taxable, you still don’t know exactly how much of your benefits are taxable on your tax return. You do not need to know all the details about how to figure it out. Our 2012 Federal Income Tax Calculator provides the function to compute the taxable amount of your social security benefits. Just enter your numbers into our calculator, and let it do the calculation for you.