Andy wrote:

- quote -

If you are filing jointly, then you include all of your
income together to determine how much of your wife's SS
benefits are taxable, not just her income or her portion of
joint income.

Dennis

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"Andy" <andysharpe[at]juno.com> wrote:

- quote -

If your combined "income from interest on CDs and pension
" plus 1/2 of the SS income is less than $32,000, then none
of your SS income is taxable. If you do your own taxes,
there is a work sheet with the instructions.

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Andy wrote:

- quote -

I don't know what tax guide you are looking at, but if you
use the Social Security Benefits Worksheet that is contained
in the IRS tax booklets that come with the 1040 and 1040A
you will see that a married couple who file a joint return
use their joint income in making the determination. You will
also see that in making the determination, a married couple
get to use a $32000 exclusion rather than $25,000 or zero.

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Andy wrote:

- quote -

When you file Married Filing JOINT you use the JOINT income
reported on the 1040 to determine how much of the SS benefit
is taxable. No allocation is required or necessary.

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"Andy" <andysharpe[at]juno.com> wrote:

- quote -

You file a joint return, so you use all your income,
regardless of which of you is the source. Don't bother
seeing whether you'll be better off filing separately.
Unless you're extremely unusual, she'll wind up paying tax
on 85% of her SS benefit.

--
Phil Marti
Clarksburg, MD

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Andy <andysharpe[at]juno.com> wrote:

- quote -

Yes.

__
Art Kamlet ArtKamlet [at] AOL.com Columbus OH K2PZH

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andysharpe[at]juno.com (Andy) posted:

- quote -

I'm not sure what tax guide you're referring to, but if your
filling MFJ (Married Filing Jointly), you should include all
income received by both of you -- whether individually, or
jointly owned investments included -- and also either or
both of your Social Security benefits [if taxable, which can
be figured using the SS tax worksheet included in Form 1040
Instructions]. Note that if the worksheet determines that
_none_ of the SS Benefits are taxable, then you should not
even make an entry on line 20 (a or b).

The logic of this, is that your MFJ return has been filled
out with _both_ of your names and SSNs at the top, and you
are _both_ signing it, so every bit of income you have
_both_ earned should be included.

The issue of "splitting" JtwROS earnings is not material,
unless you chose to file MFS (Married Filing Separately),
which is usually not better than MFJ (although there are
some cases where it may be).

Bill

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"Andy" <andysharpe[at]juno.com> writes:

- quote -

Since you are filing MFJ, you use your
*combined* income. Just follow what the
"taxability of SS benefits" worksheet says -- it
tells you what 1040/1040A line numbers to pull
stuff from.

- quote -

It doesn't need to, since on a joint return
all main form figures are combined figures.

--
Rich Carreiro rlcarr[at]animato.arlington.ma.us

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"Andy" <andysharpe[at]juno.com> wrote

- quote -

It's based on combined (joint) income of hers and yours.

--
Paul Thomas, CPA
paulthomascpapc[at]bellsouth.net

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My wife and I file "Married , Filing Jointly"

All of our income is from interest on CDs,
a small pension for me, and SS for her. I do
not have any SS income yet...

When computing the taxable portion of her
SS income, do I use our combined income,
or do I use the interest income that is from
investments in her name, and NOT include
the income from investments in my name.???

I assume the JTwROS income would be
split down the middle.....

The tax guide doesn't say anything about
combined husband and wife income being
used to determine the wife's taxable SS
benefits.....

Thanks for some advice on this..

AndyS

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