Seniors get a tax break in Trump's megabill, but many will still pay taxes on Social Security benefits. Here's the real deal

CNN

2 days ago

Senior citizens are getting a tax break in President Donald Trump's sweeping tax and spending cuts package, but it's not the one the president promised on the campaign trail last year.
Congressional Republicans could not eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits in their megabill because it would not have been allowed under the process GOP lawmakers were using to pass the legislation in the Senate without Democratic support. (That hasn't stopped Trump and administration officials from claiming at times that the 'big, beautiful bill' did get rid of taxes on benefits.)
Instead, the package gives senior citizens an additional $6,000 deduction on their federal income taxes between 2025 and 2028. Joint filers get twice that amount.
The benefit begins to phase out for single taxpayers earning more than $75,000 and married couples earning $150,000. Individuals who earn more than $175,000 and couples earning more than $250,000 don't qualify.
The beefed-up deduction will benefit fewer than half of older Americans, according to a recent analysis by the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And it provides a smaller tax break, on average, for certain taxpayers than the elimination of taxes on Social Security benefits would have.
'On average, it's a modest reduction for older adults,' said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the center. 'The winners here are upper-middle-income people. People who could get nothing are very high-income people and very low-income people.'
Those who will benefit the most are seniors earning between roughly $80,000 and $130,000. The provision will reduce their taxes by $1,100, on average, or about 1% of their after-tax income, according to the analysis.
This group would have received a tax break of about $1,300 had Congress eliminated taxes on Social Security benefits.
'It's certainly a noticeable benefit,' Tom O'Saben, director of tax content and government relations at the National Association of Tax Professionals, said of the enhanced deduction. 'It will represent a savings, but not to the degree that senior citizens may have been expecting had they been able to exclude all their Social Security benefits from taxation.'
Higher-income households won't benefit from the deduction because they earn too much to qualify, while lower-income taxpayers don't pay federal income taxes already because they earn less than the standard deduction, which was $33,200 for a married couple prior to the bill's passage.
The Trump administration estimates two-thirds of recipients are already exempt. But higher-income taxpayers would have gotten a heftier tax break had Trump's campaign promise been included in the legislation.
Still, there are people who could benefit from the deduction who would not have been helped by the elimination of taxes on Social Security benefits – namely senior citizens who have yet to start collecting the monthly payments. Conversely, Social Security recipients who are younger than 65 will not benefit from the deduction but would have received a tax break had taxes on benefits been eliminated.
Most senior citizens who receive Social Security benefits will still continue paying at least some taxes on those benefits, albeit a smaller amount, the analysis found. The center expects about 29 million households will owe taxes on their benefits, down from about 31.2 million.
What's more, even though the GOP package did not eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, the increased deduction will still indirectly hurt the finances of the program, as well as of Medicare, since the measure will reduce income taxes paid on the benefits. The levy on Social Security benefits is funneled into its trust fund and the Medicare Part A hospital insurance trust fund.
The package is expected to speed up the insolvency of both trust funds to 2032, from 2033, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
At least some senior citizens remain confused about what's in the bill, said Larry Gray, partner at AGC CPA in Rolla, Missouri. Just last week, he had a casual conversation with several older Americans who thought that they would not have to pay taxes on their Social Security benefits.
The confusion stems in part from the Trump administration and Capitol Hill's messaging about the package, which at times includes references to giving senior citizens a break on their Social Security benefits. Shortly after Congress approved the bill in early July, the Social Security Administration sent an email to many Americans noting that the bill significantly reduces the tax burden on benefits. Earlier that week, the White House posted an article on its website titled 'No Tax on Social Security is a Reality in the One Big Beautiful Bill.'
Gray fears that scammers will try to take advantage of the confusion to prey on senior citizens. He is urging the Internal Revenue Service to set the record straight.
'This is a very simple tweak,' Gray said of the enhanced deduction.