Yearly Socail Security Statement....?

Question

...Said that by the year 2040 SS will be payong OUT more taxes than willl be coming in, so will you people working off the books please pay your taxes so the rest of us LEGAL TAX PAYING CITIZENS will have a future ? Your "kind" is what is sucking the system dry, leaving little or NO benefits for those who worked all their lives to be able to retire, or get BONIFIED disability benefits !

Answer 1

Here here! If you know of anyone in particular that you have proof is avoiding SE taxes illegally, please report them to the IRS. If they are caught, they have to pay the back taxes plus fines AND you get a small reward. Everyone honest wins.

Addendum referring to the answers left after mine:

Social Security is a mandatory pension plan set up by the government. Just because somebody has wealth when they retire does not mean that they shouldn't be able to get their share of the pension plan they funded for themselves. Paying money into a fund and then not getting anything in return is not a pension, but a tax. Social Security was not set up to tax the rich and feed the poor; it was set up as a mandatory pension so that all workers would have some income in their retirement years. If there is a desire to change the directive, then social security as it stands will need to be dissolved and replaced.

If it is any consolation, those that have no other income do not have to pay any tax on their social security payments, whereas those that do have to claim up to 85% of social security payments as taxable income.

And finally, there are basically 4 types of retired people.

1) People that tried real hard, but for reasons beyond their control (physical/mental illness, deception, caring for the sick, etc.) they ended up poor.

2) People that retired poor because they consistently made bad choices in life (didn't study, didn't care, took drugs, lazy, etc.)

3) People that retired rich but didn't deserve it (cheaters, thieves, rich relative, lotto ticket, etc.)

4) People who retired rich because of their actions. They saved their whole life, worked hard, worked smartly, studied, were frugal, took risks, forgone pleasure.

You can't punish just category 3 people without punishing category 4. You can't reward category 1 without rewarding category 2. It is just impossible to separate the chaff from the wheat. When someone is panhandling for money, how do you know that they don't make $1000 per day doing it or have a massive drug addiction? Or, they might be on the verge of starvation and you may be saving their life.

Social Security is no different. Some people who really deserve the payments aren't getting any or aren’t getting enough and some people are getting payments that don't need it or deserve it. All we can do is live our own lives as honestly as possible and report those that we know for sure are underreporting income to Uncle Sam.

Answer 2

Wow, I think WAGGY, is wagging the dog. For starters, maybe people aren't being stupid by spending, maybe they are supporting their families with every cent of their hard earned cash. Unlike some people in this country who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth,(sorry you didn't choke on it) try a hard day's work for one day in your life waggy and then come back and talk to the little people. As for the people sucking the system dry, I think they should be held accountable. But where do we start? All of the fat cats that are running homeless shelters on government grants for millions a year, while taking every tax cut and handout from sympathetic citizens. Or the rich developers who hire cheap illegal laborers and and pay off inspectors to warn them when INS is coming to inspect a job site? This country runs on money, and until we can cull the crooks and scabs from their high paying (high pension, ring any bells WAGGY?) positions, and get some people with morals and scruples to run the show, I seriously doubt we will have any social security benefits in 20 years.
The government should just reverse the process and invest the money in the individual at an earlier age for education and a solid stock portfolio, by the time they reach retirement age they wouldn't have to rely on the feds.

Answer 3

You make a good point, but consider the following:
a. People drawing SS benefits now are getting back everything they ever paid into the system within the first couple years of retiring. Our current withholding is paying their benefits.
b. The people working "off the books" won't be able to draw SS benefits if they don't have any taxable earnings posted under their social security numbers. They are screwing themselves until they start reporting wages.
c. The government needs to repay any and all monies they have "borrowed" from the Social Security fund.
d. Fraudulent disability claims, i.e., bogus back injuries, need to be eliminated!
e. There are retirees out there that don't NEED to draw SS benefits. Some of them are making more from their state or gov't retirement funds than many current wage earners. I know of people who use their SS benefits to travel or entertain themselves. I'm talking about those making in excess of $50,000 per year in regular retirement, keep in mind. And yet there are other retirees who are 100% dependent on their SS benefits to live and have to choose between heat, food, and medical expenses.
f) and finally...what about career welfare recipients? Maybe if someone's turned their "welfare" into a "job", they should start paying in taxes on it.

I would advocate the privatization of social security to make sure my own benefits are there when I need them.

Answer 4

The largest flaw in the current system is this: The system was NEVER intended to be a retirement system. It was intended to provide for those how outlived their own retirement savings. When Social Security was enacted, the "retirement age" was 2 years past the average life expectancy. The majority of those paying into the system were never expected to draw anything out.

Answer 5

You make a good point. Fearslady has it all wrong. The people working today have been paying benefits for people who never worked in the system and got benefits and those people who worked in the system when the maximum subject to FICA tax was lower and the amount being paid in by them was greater than they were funding.
As a percentage of FICA taxes paid some retiring today is receiving a significantly greater percentage of their pre-retirement pay than are those that are paying in the maximum amount subject to FICA tax.
To put a cap on social security because someone was able to save more for retirement is crazy. Why do you want to punish someone for saving and reward someone who was stupid and spent everything. We all paid for our grandparent and parents and to renege on the promised benefit is the height of communists philosophy.