Do I need to file an extra form to get a refund for Excess Social Security and tier 1 RRTA tax withheld? Help needed!
I'm in a bit of a pickle with my taxes this year. Because I worked for several different companies in 2024, I noticed I had approximately $9,500 showing up on line 11 of Schedule 3 (Form 1040) as Excess Social Security and tier 1 RRTA tax withheld. The problem is I also ended up owing about $13k in additional income taxes which I've already paid off. But it looks like those $9,500 in overpaid Social Security taxes weren't factored into my overall tax situation. Is there a specific additional form I need to file to claim back this Excess Social Security and tier 1 RRTA tax withheld? Or should this have automatically been applied to reduce what I owed? I feel like I'm missing something obvious here but I'm completely confused about how to get this money back.
18 comments
Join the conversation
Chloe Anderson
The good news is you don't need to file an additional form to receive your refund for Excess Social Security and tier 1 RRTA tax withheld. This amount should have already been calculated as part of your tax return via Schedule 3, Line 11. When you have multiple employers in a year, each employer withholds Social Security tax without knowing about the others. Since there's a maximum amount of Social Security tax you should pay annually (based on the wage base limit), any excess withheld should be credited back to you automatically through your tax return. If the $9,500 appears on Line 11 of Schedule 3, it should have transferred to Line 10 on your 1040 as a payment already made. This amount would be factored in with all your other payments and withholdings to determine if you owe or are due a refund.
0 coins
Omar Hassan
•Thanks for your response! So if I'm understanding correctly, the $9,500 excess SS tax should have been factored into my overall tax calculation and potentially reduced my $13k owed? When I review my 1040, I'm not seeing that reduction happen. Could I have made a mistake when filing? Is it worth filing an amended return (1040-X) to correct this?
0 coins
Chloe Anderson
•The amount on Schedule 3, Line 11 should transfer to Line 31 on Form 1040 (the "total other payments and refundable credits" line) via Schedule 3's total on Line 15. That amount then becomes part of your total payments on Line 33 of Form 1040, which is subtracted from your total tax to determine if you get a refund or owe more. If you're not seeing that happen, then yes, filing an amended return with Form 1040-X would be appropriate. Double-check your original return first to confirm the error. Make sure the amount properly transferred from Schedule 3 to Form 1040. This is definitely worth correcting as $9,500 is a substantial amount that should either reduce what you owed or generate a refund.
0 coins
Diego Vargas
After dealing with a similar issue last year (had 3 jobs and overpaid SS by about $5,300), I discovered that the online tax software I was using wasn't properly accounting for my excess Social Security tax. I kept getting confused by all the numbers, and the software wasn't giving clear guidance about Schedule 3. I ended up using https://taxr.ai to scan all my W-2s and tax documents. Their system immediately flagged that I had excess Social Security contributions across multiple employers and made sure it was properly credited on my return. The analysis showed exactly where my previous calculations were wrong. If you're confused about whether your excess SS tax was properly accounted for, it might help to have all your documents reviewed by their system to spot exactly where the problem occurred.
0 coins
CosmicCruiser
•Does taxr.ai actually work with complicated tax situations? I switched jobs twice last year and I'm pretty sure I overpaid SS tax too, but I just filed without thinking about it. Would their system be able to tell me if I made a mistake after I've already filed?
0 coins
Anastasia Fedorov
•I'm skeptical about using another service when it seems like this should be a simple fix. Couldn't the OP just compare the numbers on their actual return? Like, does this service actually tell you something you couldn't figure out by just looking at the forms properly?
0 coins
Diego Vargas
•Yes, it works really well with multiple W-2s and job changes. The system specifically looks for situations where you've overpaid Social Security tax across employers. Even if you've already filed, it can analyze your return and tell you if an amendment would be beneficial. It helped me identify exactly which lines on my return weren't correctly transferring the excess SS tax. They have a specific feature that checks for excess Social Security tax withholding when you've had multiple employers. It doesn't just tell you what you could see yourself - it catches calculation errors and transfer errors between forms that are easy to miss, especially with complicated tax situations.
0 coins
CosmicCruiser
Just wanted to follow up! I decided to try taxr.ai with my documents because I was convinced I overpaid my Social Security taxes with my job changes. The system immediately flagged that I had $4,200 in excess Social Security tax that wasn't properly credited on my return! It highlighted exactly which lines on my forms were wrong and showed me that my tax software hadn't properly transferred the amount from Schedule 3 to my 1040. I'm now filing an amended return to get that money back. Seriously, I would have left that money on the table if I hadn't double-checked. Worth the peace of mind to know for sure!
0 coins
Sean Doyle
I had a similar issue with excess SS tax last year and spent WEEKS trying to get someone at the IRS to confirm whether I needed to file an amended return. Calling the regular IRS number was useless - either perpetual hold or disconnected. After someone recommended https://claimyr.com, I was able to get through to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent confirmed I needed to file Form 1040-X and explained exactly which lines needed correction. Saved me from guessing whether I was doing the amendment correctly. If you're struggling to get answers directly from the IRS about your excess Social Security tax situation, this is way better than endless hold music.
0 coins
Omar Hassan
•How does this Claimyr thing actually work? I've been trying to call the IRS for days about my situation and just get endless hold times. Are they just helping you skip the queue somehow? Seems too good to be true honestly.
0 coins
Zara Rashid
•This sounds sketchy. Why would I pay a third party to call the IRS when I can just keep trying myself? Isn't this just taking advantage of people who are frustrated with wait times? I bet the "agent" was just someone pretending to know tax rules.
0 coins
Sean Doyle
•It works by using an automated system that navigates the IRS phone tree and waits on hold for you. When an agent finally answers, you get a call connecting you directly to them. It's not skipping the queue - they're just waiting in it so you don't have to. They're not pretending to be agents or anything sketchy. You talk directly to real IRS employees. I was skeptical too until I tried it. The alternative was spending hours on hold myself, getting disconnected repeatedly, and still not getting an answer about my excess Social Security tax situation. I was able to speak directly with an IRS representative who confirmed exactly how to file my amended return to get my excess SS tax refunded.
0 coins
Zara Rashid
I need to eat my words from my previous comment. After another week of failing to get through to the IRS about my own tax questions, I broke down and tried Claimyr. Within 20 minutes I was talking to an actual IRS agent who answered all my questions about excess Social Security tax withholding. The agent confirmed that my excess SS tax should have reduced my tax bill and walked me through exactly which lines to check on my return. Turns out I'm owed nearly $4k because of a calculation error! They even gave me the exact codes and explanations to include on my 1040-X to make sure it gets processed correctly. Definitely filing an amendment now. Sometimes it's worth admitting when you're wrong - this service saved me hours of frustration AND money.
0 coins
Luca Romano
One thing to check before filing an amendment - are you sure the software didn't already include your excess Social Security tax in your calculations? When I had this issue, the excess SS tax was properly included in my total payments on Form 1040, even though my total tax owed was high enough that I still ended up owing additional money. In other words, your $13k owed might have already been reduced from an even higher amount by accounting for the $9,500 excess SS tax. Might be worth double-checking all the numbers on your 1040 before going through the trouble of amending.
0 coins
Omar Hassan
•That's a good point! I'll go through line by line on my 1040 again. When you had this situation, was your excess SS tax shown separately anywhere on the final 1040 form, or was it just included in a larger total? I'm having trouble tracing where exactly the $9,500 should have been applied.
0 coins
Luca Romano
•The excess SS tax won't appear as a separate line on Form 1040 itself. It starts on Schedule 3, Line 11, then gets included in the total on Schedule 3, Line 15. That total then transfers to Form 1040, Line 31 as "other payments and refundable credits." Line 31 then gets added with your withholding and other payments to create Line 33 "total payments." So to trace it, check Schedule 3 first to confirm the excess SS tax is on Line 11, then follow the totals to make sure they correctly transfer to Form 1040. If Line 33 of your 1040 doesn't include the excess SS amount, that's when you know there's an error that needs amending.
0 coins
Nia Jackson
When you say you had multiple jobs, were any of them self-employment? I ask because the rules are different for calculating excess Social Security tax if some of your income was from self-employment versus just having multiple W-2 jobs. If any income was from self-employment, you need to use a different calculation method using Schedule SE along with Form 8959. That might explain why the excess Social Security tax wasn't automatically applied to reduce your tax bill.
0 coins
NebulaNova
•Good point about self-employment complicating things. I had this exact issue last year with a mix of W-2 and 1099 work. The tax software completely messed up my excess SS calculations. Ended up having to manually work through the calculations using the worksheet in Publication 505.
0 coins