Why You Can Still Lose Part of Your Social Security Check After Full Retirement Age

Once you reach full retirement age, Social Security’s earnings test no longer applies. But that does not necessarily mean your monthly benefit will arrive untouched, because taxes can still reduce what you keep.

If you plan to keep working while collecting Social Security, it may make sense to wait until full retirement age (FRA) to claim benefits or begin earning income from a job.

FRA is 67 for people born in 1960 or later. At that point, you can receive your full monthly Social Security benefit without a reduction, and you can earn any amount from work without triggering the earnings test.

The earnings test limits how much you can make from work before benefits are withheld. In 2026, people who have not reached FRA by the end of the year can lose $1 in Social Security benefits for every $2 earned above $24,480.

Those withheld payments are not gone forever. They are added back later through larger checks after FRA is reached. Still, the earnings test can create short-term headaches, which is why its disappearance at FRA is such a relief.

Even so, reaching FRA does not guarantee you will keep every dollar of your Social Security payment. Taxes can still take a bite out of those checks.

How Social Security benefits are taxed

Whether Social Security is taxed does not depend on your age or the age at which you filed. Instead, it is based on provisional income.

Provisional income is the total of your adjusted gross income, tax-exempt interest income, and 50% of your annual Social Security benefits.

For single filers, provisional income of $25,000 can make up to 50% of benefits subject to federal tax. For married couples filing jointly, that threshold is $32,000.

The impact can be even greater. Single filers with provisional income above $34,000 may owe taxes on as much as 85% of benefits. The same applies to married couples filing jointly with provisional income above $44,000.

These income thresholds have remained unchanged for decades, which means even modest income can cause a portion of a Social Security check to be taxed.

Some retirees have relief now, but it may not last

Retirees with moderate incomes may not owe taxes on their benefits at the moment. A $6,000 senior deduction included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is currently shielding many older Americans from taxes on their Social Security checks.

That deduction is scheduled to expire in 2028. So even if you are not paying taxes on benefits now, that could change in a few years.

It is helpful that once you reach FRA, you can work without worrying about Social Security’s earnings test. But even then, taxes may still reduce what you take home.

If you want to minimize the chance of paying taxes on Social Security, consider managing retirement account withdrawals carefully so your income stays below the relevant limit. A Roth conversion may also help, since Roth withdrawals do not count toward provisional income.