When to claim
You can claim from 62, get your full benefit at your full retirement age (67 for anyone born in 1960 or later), and earn delayed retirement credits of 8% a year up to 70. Claiming at 62 cuts the benefit by 30% for life; waiting to 70 raises it by 24%. Claiming later pays off if you live past the breakeven age, around 79 for 62 versus 67 and about 82½ for 67 versus 70. The Social Security break even calculator runs it for your own benefit.
Calculators
Social Security breakeven calculator
When claiming at full retirement age or 70 overtakes claiming at 62, and which age pays the most for how long you live.
Retirement tax calculator
Federal and state tax on Social Security, IRA withdrawals, pensions and investment income for a 2026 return.
Retirement income calculator
Your monthly income in retirement from savings, Social Security and pensions, and whether it covers your spending.
Senior deduction calculator
How much of the new $6,000 deduction for people 65 and older you keep after the income phase-out, and the tax it saves.
IRMAA calculator
Your Medicare Part B and D surcharge from your MAGI, the projected 2027 brackets, and the room left before the next cliff.
How benefits are taxed
Up to 85% of benefits can be taxable. It depends on combined income: half your benefits plus all other income, including tax-exempt interest. The thresholds are $25,000 / $34,000 single; $32,000 / $44,000 joint, and they have never been indexed for inflation, so more retirees cross them every year. The new senior deduction of up to $6,000 offsets the tax for many, but it did not change how benefits are taxed. The retirement tax calculator doubles as a Social Security income tax calculator: enter your benefits and other income to see the taxable amount and the tax on it.
Working while you collect
Before full retirement age, Social Security holds back benefits if you earn more than the earnings test limit: $24,480 a year ($1 withheld per $2 over) in 2026. The money is not lost; your benefit is recalculated upward at full retirement age.
The cost-of-living adjustment
Benefits rise each January with inflation. The 2026 adjustment was 2.8%. For 2027: 3.6%. The 2027 retirement numbers page has the new wage base, earnings test and maximum benefit as they are announced.