Social Security earnings limit at FRA - how much can I earn at 66 and 11 months without penalties?

Good news! Since you'll be past your Full Retirement Age (FRA), there is NO limit on how much you can earn without affecting your Social Security benefits. The earnings limit only applies to people who are collecting benefits before reaching their FRA. Once you hit FRA (which for your birth year would be 66 and 10 months), the earnings limit completely disappears. Regarding taxes - Social Security doesn't automatically withhold taxes from your earnings from work. You'll need to handle those yourself, either through estimated quarterly payments or having your employer withhold taxes. However, your additional income might make more of your Social Security benefits themselves taxable when you file your income taxes.

my sister in law had this same issue!! she started working again after retiring and got REALLY confused with all the SS rules. but yeah once your past FRA you can earn as much as you want no problem!

To add some clarification about the tax situation: While there's no limit on what you can earn after FRA without affecting your benefit amount, you do need to consider how your additional income affects the taxation of your Social Security benefits themselves. If your combined income (adjusted gross income + nontaxable interest + half of your Social Security benefits) exceeds certain thresholds, a portion of your Social Security benefits becomes taxable: - If combined income is between $25,000-$34,000 (single) or $32,000-$44,000 (married filing jointly), up to 50% of benefits may be taxable - If combined income exceeds $34,000 (single) or $44,000 (married filing jointly), up to 85% of benefits may be taxable So while you can earn unlimited amounts, higher earnings might increase how much of your SS benefit is subject to income tax.

When I reached my full retirement age last year, I had the same question. I spent THREE DAYS trying to get through to SSA to get a straight answer! Their phone lines are always busy and I kept getting disconnected. Finally I found a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to a real person at Social Security in about 20 minutes. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU. The agent confirmed exactly what others are saying here - no earnings limit after FRA, but you do need to watch out for the tax implications.

so wait u can just work as many hours as u want after FRA? wish i knew that before i turned down that job last year lol thought i would lose all my ss money if i made too much

Thanks everyone for the helpful responses! This clears up a lot of my confusion. I'm going to take that consulting job and not worry about an earnings limit. I'll talk to my tax person about possibly making estimated quarterly payments to cover the extra income and maybe adjusting my withholding on my Social Security benefits too. Really appreciate all the explanations!

I just wanted to apologize for my earlier response. I was confusing the rules before and after FRA. My husband was still 6 months away from his FRA when he went back to work, which is why he saw a reduction. Thank you to everyone who provided the correct information!