Social Security tax withholding - calculated on gross benefit or after Medicare deduction?

Thank you, that's exactly what I needed to know! Looks like I'll need to budget a bit tighter than I thought.

That's right! And just FYI for anyone reading - you can change your withholding amount on W-4V anytime if you realize you've withheld too much or too little. I had to adjust mine twice last year as my situation changed.

also remember u can change withholding % if u need to! i started at 7% but bumped to 12% when i realized i was still owing at tax time

I had the same problem trying to reach them about an overpayment issue. After wasting hours on hold, I found this service called Claimyr that got me connected to an agent in about 15 minutes. They basically wait on hold for you then call you when an agent is on the line. Saved me so much frustration! Their site is claimyr.com and there's a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/Z-BRbJw3puU

Yeah, that's exactly what I was worried about! I started receiving benefits in January and suddenly realized I hadn't arranged for withholding. Didn't want to get blindsided next April.

This is good advice. The W-4V changes usually take 1-2 payment cycles to process, and occasionally there are errors. I recommend checking your MySocialSecurity account after your next payment to verify the withholding amount is correct (10% of your gross benefit). If it's not right, call them immediately to avoid repeated errors.

That's a good point. I do have a small pension that's already withholding taxes, and I'll probably start taking minimum distributions from my 401k next year. Might need to revisit the withholding percentage after I get a better sense of my total tax situation.

Thank you so much for the official confirmation! It's really helpful to hear from someone who works at SSA directly. I appreciate knowing about the 1099-SSA too - that will definitely make tax season easier. Good to know I can change the withholding percentage anytime if needed. This community has been incredibly helpful in getting this sorted out!

@Amina Bah i will give my experience with this, received SS starting 2024 without medicare and fed tax on gross amount. starting in 2025 now on medicare and 2025 benefit statement clearly shows the medicare deduction before taxation to arrive at net benefit. simple math confirmed that. 2026 statement just arrived and the same scenario is confirmed. Now is that an anomaly or is it how SS works? total SS benefit is <$30k, however IRS tax filing is joint and income will be taxed at 85%

I completely agree! As someone who's just getting started with all this Social Security stuff, this thread has been incredibly helpful. The W-4V form wasn't even on my radar until I saw this discussion. It's so reassuring to see people sharing their real experiences - both the successes and the mistakes they learned from. I'm definitely going to look into setting up withholding myself now that I understand how it works. Thanks to everyone for making this feel less overwhelming!

Thanks for sharing your experience! That's really reassuring to hear from someone who went through the same thing. I like your point about being conservative with withholding - I'd rather get a refund than be caught short at tax time, especially in my first year figuring all this out. Keeping track of those first few payments is a great tip too. Did you find any issues with the timing of when the withholding actually started after you submitted your W-4V?

That's really concerning! Thanks for sharing this - it sounds like there might be a bug in the online system. Your math is definitely correct: 22% of $1,351 should be $297.22, not $256.50. If they're incorrectly calculating withholding on the net amount after Medicare deductions, that's a significant error that could affect a lot of people. I was planning to use the online system myself, but now I'm thinking I should stick with the paper W-4V form to be safe. Have you contacted SSA about this calculation error? This seems like something they need to fix ASAP since it's affecting people's tax planning.

Wow, that's a significant error! Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention. Your calculation is spot on - 22% of $1,351 should definitely be $297.22, not $256.50. It sounds like the online system is mistakenly applying the withholding percentage to your net benefit after Medicare deductions instead of the gross amount. That's exactly the opposite of how it's supposed to work according to everyone else's experiences here. This could be affecting a lot of people who are using the online option instead of the paper W-4V form. I'd strongly recommend calling SSA to report this calculation error - they need to know their online system has a bug. In the meantime, it might be safer for people to use the traditional paper form until this gets fixed.

This is extremely helpful information - thank you for sharing this! As someone who just submitted a W-4V form (the paper version), I'm really glad I didn't use the online system. Your math is absolutely correct, and it's alarming that SSA's online system would have such a fundamental calculation error. This could be costing people hundreds of dollars in under-withholding over the course of a year. I hope you've reported this to SSA because this bug needs to be fixed immediately. It makes me wonder how many other people have been affected without realizing their withholding was calculated incorrectly. Thanks for the warning - I'll definitely be sticking with the paper W-4V forms for any future changes.

This is exactly the kind of issue that makes me nervous about relying on automated systems for important financial matters! Thank you for doing the math and catching this error. It's really troubling that SSA's online withholding tool would have such a basic calculation mistake - applying the percentage to net instead of gross benefit completely defeats the purpose of proper tax planning. I was actually considering switching to the online system for convenience, but after reading your experience, I'm definitely sticking with the paper W-4V form. Have you been able to get through to someone at SSA to report this bug? This seems like something that could be affecting thousands of beneficiaries who trust that the online system is calculating correctly.

@Dana Mulvany has anyone had any luck contacting SSA about this issue? i sent a paper W-4v back in 2024 and as stated in a previous response, tax was on gross amount, then when starting medicare it subtracted that before tax to arrive at net amount.

Welcome to the community, Nick! I'm also pretty new to all this Social Security stuff and this thread has been a real eye-opener. Dana's discovery about the online calculation error is definitely concerning - it makes me wonder how many people have been affected without even realizing it. I was leaning toward using the online system too since it seemed simpler, but after seeing the math discrepancy, the paper W-4V route seems much safer. It's frustrating that we can't trust the automated system to do basic calculations correctly! I really appreciate how helpful everyone has been in sharing their real experiences here. It's making me feel much more confident about navigating all these benefit decisions as a newcomer.

You're absolutely right to be cautious about the online system after Dana's discovery! I'm also relatively new to SS benefits and this thread has been incredibly educational. That $41 monthly error Dana found is exactly the kind of mistake that could really mess up someone's tax planning for the whole year. It's honestly pretty shocking that SSA's online system would have such a basic calculation flaw - you'd think they would have caught something like that in testing. I'm definitely sticking with the paper W-4V form now too. Better to deal with a little extra paperwork than risk having my withholding calculated wrong all year. Thanks to Dana for catching this and to everyone else for sharing their experiences - this community is such a valuable resource for navigating all these government processes!