Hello from wonderful Florida, where I’m spending the weekend following President Trump, and I find it just a touch too warm to be walking around in a sport coat.
I spent Friday covering Trump’s campaign-style speech to The Villages, which bills itself as the world’s largest retirement community. I can confirm: it is massive. It’s also one of those places where the primary mode of transportation is a golf cart. My rental car is a Hyundai Sonata. Oh well.
Trump spoke in front of a backdrop that read “Golden Age for your Golden Years,” and talked up what he described as “no tax on Social Security.”
There’s just one problem: Social Security benefits are most definitely still taxed.
@jacobbogage “No tax on Social Security” is not a real thing. President Trump still talked about it a lot at his rally today in Florida. Here’s what’s ... See more
Trump promised on the campaign trail to end taxes on:
Tips
Overtime
Auto loan interest for US-made cars
Social Security benefits
He got the first three done in the One Big Beautiful Bill, the mammoth tax and immigration law the GOP passed last summer.
He did not get the last one; arcane Senate rules prohibited Republicans from taking it up on a party-line vote. So instead, the GOP created a standard deduction bonus for seniors: a $6,000 boost to the standard deduction meant to offset taxes paid on Social Security benefits.
That’s very different from “no taxes on Social Security.” The non-partisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center found that nearly half — 47.3% — of households that draw Social Security benefits still owed taxes on them, even after the senior bonus deduction, for the 2025 tax year.
So how do taxes on Social Security work? Here’s a minor simplification:
Social Security is taxed like ordinary income at the federal level. Beneficiaries report it as income to the IRS on Form 1040. What the Republican tax bill did was lower a senior’s taxable income by $6,000 on top of the standard deduction ($15,750 for single filers or $31,500 for married filing jointly). State taxes remain the same, though states often calculate taxable income based on what’s reported to the IRS. In that way, this senior deduction could also lower the state tax burden for seniors.
It’s a policy that is meaningful and, for many seniors, will lower their taxes substantially. But is it “no taxes on Social Security”?
No. It isn’t.
Hope that clears things up! As always, please keep in touch. Email me at [email protected] and contact me securely on Signal at jacobbogage.87. And follow me on Bluesky: @jacobbogage.bsky.social and LinkedIn.
