Who in this forum helps their mom file her income tax return? (Filed ours today)

Photo above - Do you know this person? She claims to be "Kerra Bolton" and that people earning more than $34,000 are rich. This either the world's worst photoshop, or a straight up AI fake picture.

First off, I’d like to cast shade on TurboTax. Not only is the most basic tax product available to my mom $188 (state plus federal), but it could also go almost double that if you add in the two higher levels of help and audit protection. Not to mention whatever is going on with all those Credit Karma pitches. I felt like I was at a carnival.

Anyway, the estimated time to complete (by Turbo Tax) was 1 hour, 32 minutes. Actual time? Closer to 2 and half. It would have been 1 and a half without all the product upsells pitches.

My mother is NOT a wealthy person. She gets social security, my dad’s pension (eroding rapidly due to inflation) and has an IRA she is now required to take minimum distributions (RMDs) from, because she’s over 73. If she’s lucky, she might pass away before those RMDs draw down her IRA balance to zero.

It’s the social security benefits that have me steamed (again) this year. Do you think $34,000 income is a lot? The IRS does. Because Mom got more than $34K in income last year (including required IRA distributions) 85% of her social security benefits are taxable. Taxed at the same rate as Dad’s pension and those IRA withdrawals.

People who are familiar with how money works will see the problem. Dad ALREADY paid income tax on this social security, each and every year he had social security withholding from his paychecks. Your biweekly withholding is considered taxable income. And that money is taxed a SECOND time when you’re old and sick and need that money desperately. Neat trick, eh? No wonder people think the whole system is a scam, and 401K/IRA accounts are more honest. At least you only get taxed once.

The federal poverty level in the USA is $37,000. The social security benefits tax kicks in while someone is earning just $34K. Below poverty level.

If anyone is telling you that income taxes and social security are “indexed for inflation”, they are either liars or idiots. The government calls $37K “poverty” on one day and then claims that it throws you into a high tax bracket on April 15th. WTH!!!!

I have nothing but scorn for Kerra Bolton, the author of the ridiculous tax rant in the link below. She says that senior citizens should continue to have social security benefits taxed, because if those taxes are eliminated (per Trump’s proposal) “it will mostly benefit the rich”. Kerra, thanks for your financial insights, arising from your BA degrees in English Literature and Philosophy from Hood College, Frederick Maryland (average SAT 1100). I’d love to have you sit down and meet my mom sometime and see how she lives. But I don’t think you’re even a real person. That photo (at top) is either the worst case of Photoshop I’ve ever seen, or an AI-created avatar.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Who Would Benefit the Most from Trump’s Social Security Tax Plan