7 Ways to Pay Less Taxes on Social Security Benefits

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Adam Shell

Updated January 31, 2025

En español

Updated January 31, 2025

For many older Americans, Social Security payments are a financial lifeline. They may also be taxable income, which can come as an unpleasant surprise to new beneficiaries unaware that the IRS can take a bite out of their benefits.

That doesn’t apply to all Social Security recipients. If your overall income is below certain thresholds, you pay zero taxes on your benefits. Unfortunately, those thresholds are pretty low.

Under federal law, Social Security benefits are taxable if your “combined income” — adjusted gross income (AGI) plus nontaxable interest plus half of your benefits — is at least $25,000 for an individual taxpayer and $32,000 for a married couple filing jointly.

Below that level, benefits aren’t taxed. (Most people with income only from Social Security are in this category.) If your combined income is $25,000 to $34,000 (single) or $32,000 to $44,000 (couple), up to 50 percent of what you get from Social Security is taxable. Above $34,000 for single filers and $44,000 for couples, up to 85 percent of benefits are taxable.

Those rules mean retirees have options to reduce or eliminate the tax burden on their benefits. In a nutshell: “It’s about reducing your income,” says Tim Steffen, director of advanced planning for wealth management firm Baird.

Reducing income isn’t always the best thing for your financial health, and if what you’re bringing in is well above the IRS income thresholds, there’s really not much you can do to avoid paying tax on your benefits.

But if your income is close to one of the taxability thresholds, lowering your AGI via investment moves, tax-friendly retirement account distributions or other means could shield more of your benefits (or future benefits) from the IRS. Here are some of the options.

1. Prioritize withdrawals from tax-free retirement accounts

If it’s an option, take distributions from a Roth 401(k) or Roth IRA rather than a traditional retirement account.

The beauty of a Roth is that withdrawals are tax-free, as long as the account has been open for at least five years. That means any distributions you take are “not going to count as taxable income when it comes to the Social Security calculation,” says Nicole Birkett-Brunkhorst, a senior wealth adviser at 1834 Wealth Management and a registered Social Security analyst.

If your income derives solely from Social Security and a tax-free Roth account, you have a good chance of keeping the taxable portion of your benefits close to zero, according to Noah Harden, national wealth planning manager at Comerica Bank.

2. Donate your RMDs to charity

If you’re at an age where you must take required minimum distributions (RMDs) from your retirement accounts and you have an IRA, you can avoid having the proceeds count as taxable income by donating the money to charity by Dec. 31 of each tax year.

You can't make these qualified charitable donations (QCDs) from a 401(k), but you can still use this strategy by rolling the necessary funds into an IRA before making the contribution. For the 2024 tax year, you can make QCDs of up to $105,000 for an individual and $210,000 for a married couple filing jointly. (Those caps increase to $108,000 and $216,000 for 2025 taxes.)

“This is a good strategy for somebody who is forced to take money out of an IRA that they don’t need,” Steffen says. Just remember that the RMD donation must be transferred directly from your IRA to the charity — otherwise, it counts as taxable income.

3. Take IRA or 401(k) withdrawals before claiming Social Security

The advantages of this approach are twofold. First, taking distributions from tax-deferred retirement accounts will reduce your balance, thus reducing the size of your future RMDs (which are determined, in part, by how much is in the account) and, by extension, your future AGI.

Second, generating income from your retirement accounts early enables you to defer taking Social Security, which results in bigger benefits. Your monthly benefit amount increases by 5 percent to 8 percent for each year between the ages of 62 and 70 that you delay claiming it.

4. Make tax-deductible contributions to retirement accounts

Depending on your income and whether you have a job-based retirement plan such as a 401(k), contributions to an IRA can be fully or partially tax-deductible and thus lower your AGI.

The IRS annually sets limits on deductible IRA contributions. It’s not too late to max out for the 2024 tax year: Earners over age 50 can stash up to $8,000 in pretax dollars in an IRA by April 15. For the 2025 tax year, the contribution limit will be the same.

Contributions to a health savings account (HSA) may also be tax-deductible and reduce your taxable income, Harden notes.

5. Defer gig-work income

If you earn extra dollars driving for Uber, walking dogs for Rover.com or doing freelance consulting work, you can lower your taxable income in a few different ways, says Mark Steber, senior vice president and chief tax information officer at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.

For example, you could:

Defer income into another year by sending out invoices after Dec. 31.
Pull business expenses you planned for next year — say, a new printer for the home office or a professional development course — into the current year to take the tax deduction sooner.
Contribute pretax dollars to an eligible retirement account, such as a traditional IRA, Solo 401(k) or SEP (simplified employee pension) IRA.

Or you could simply opt to work a little less, if you’re getting close to one of the income thresholds and the tax savings from not crossing it would make up for the lost income.

6. Offset investment gains with losses

Taxable stock portfolios took a hit in the recent bear market. They’ve since recovered, but in a future downturn you could consider selling some depressed stocks — you can use those losses to offset income earned on capital gains and potentially write off up to $3,000 in ordinary income.

This strategy, dubbed tax-loss harvesting, is a way to “realize a loss and take it as a tax deduction,” Birkett-Brunkhorst says.

7. Pivot to a tax-efficient investment portfolio

Loading up taxable investment accounts with assets that generate lots of income, such as real estate investment trusts, dividend-paying stocks or most types of bonds, can increase the tax hit on your Social Security benefits. An alternative strategy might be putting income-generating investments into tax-deferred accounts such as traditional IRAs and 401(k)s.

You’ll want to fill your taxable accounts with growth stocks. These only generate capital gains when they are sold, and those gains are taxed at a more favorable rate than ordinary income if they come from assets held for at least 12 months. For the 2024 tax year, the long-term capital gains rate is:

0 percent if taxable income is up to $47,025 for single filers, $94,050 for married couples filing jointly.
15 percent if taxable income is $47,026 to $518,900 (single) or $94,051 to $583,750 (couple).
20 percent if taxable income is over the maximums above.

“If you have investments that have advantageous capital gains treatment or potentially lower dividends, that’s going to be something that will lower your AGI and lower the taxable amount of your Social Security,” Harden says.