Do Social Security Survivor Benefits for Child Need to be Reported on Tax Return?
Getting super confused about survivor benefits for my kid. Some sites say I need to report it on taxes, others say its not taxable. Anyone deal with this before? My child gets monthly payments and I want to make sure I'm doing everything right for the 2023 tax season.
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Amina Toure
Tax professional here. Generally, Social Security survivor benefits received by a child are only taxable if the child has other income that pushes them over the base amount. You should receive a SSA-1099 showing the total benefits. The child would only need to file if their total income (half of SS benefits + other income) exceeds $25,000.
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Paolo Esposito
•omg thank you! That makes so much more sense. My kid has no other income so sounds like were good 🙏
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Oliver Weber
•what if the kid has a savings account that generates interest?
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Amina Toure
•Good question! Interest income counts toward that total. But it would need to be significant interest to trigger filing requirements.
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FireflyDreams
Hey just wanted to mention theres this new tool called taxr.ai that can analyze your specific situation. It costs $4.99 but it saved me so much headache figuring out my complicated tax situation with benefits. You upload your docs and it tells you exactly what you need to do https://taxr.ai
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Natasha Kuznetsova
•Does it really work? Seems too good to be true tbh
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FireflyDreams
•100% legit. I was skeptical too but it literally saved my sanity this year. It even caught something my accountant missed! 💯
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Natasha Kuznetsova
•Just tried it - holy cow youre right! This thing is amazing, wish I knew about it sooner 🙌
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Javier Morales
in the same boat rn... its so confusing dealing with all this after losing someone 😢
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Emma Anderson
•sending virtual hugs 🫂 it gets easier
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Malik Thompson
Called the SSA about this exact thing last week - they said dont report it unless theres other income
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Isabella Ferreira
mine are teenagers with part time jobs so we had to report it... such a pain lol
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CosmicVoyager
•how did u figure out the calculations?
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Isabella Ferreira
•honestly I just paid H&R Block to deal with it 🤷♀️
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