Married couples claiming Social Security in 2026 face a tax problem that’s rarely mentioned in retirement planning conversations, and it hits hard when two incomes are combined when one person claims alone.
A couple, both in their late 60s, are each collecting Social Security. One woman earns $1,800 a month, the other earns $1,400. Together that’s $38,400 a year in benefits. They also have less retirement account withdrawals of about $20,000 a year. On paper, it feels comfortable. The IRS treats them very differently than a single filer in the same situation.
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Combined Social Security Income: $38,400 per year
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Additional retirement withdrawals: ~$20,000
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Filing Status: Married filing jointly
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Real risk: Combined income tax incentives up to 85% of Social Security benefits
The IRS uses a concept called “gross income” to determine how much of your Social Security is taxable. The formula adds your adjusted gross income, any untaxed benefits, and half of your Social Security benefits. For married couples filing jointly, once combined income exceeds $44,000, up to 85% of Social Security benefits are taxable. This limit has not been adjusted for inflation since it was set in 1983.
With the Consumer Price Index sitting at 326.6 against the 1982-84 baseline of 100, the erosion of purchasing power is severe. Limits that once protected middle-income retirees now cover couples with relatively low incomes. A single filer gets 85% of the limit on combined income up to $34,000. A married couple gets only $10,000 more in runway despite having two people and usually higher fixed costs.
With $38,400 in combined benefits and $20,000 in withdrawals, the couple is well over the $44,000 limit. Most of their Social Security check becomes federally taxable, turning what felt like a planning success into an unexpected tax.
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The single most effective lever controls the timing and source of retirement withdrawals. Withdrawing from a Roth IRA instead of a traditional IRA keeps combined income lower because Roth distributions are not counted in the IRS formula. Couples who convert traditional IRA balances to Roth accounts before both spouses claim Social Security can materially reduce how much of their benefits are taxed each year.
The first is to claim both Social Security benefits at the same time without modeling the combined income tax effect. Running the numbers before a low-income woman files, and stress-testing various withdrawal arrangements, is a decision that is crucial. The gap between planned behavior and unplanned behavior can easily add up to several thousand dollars a year in avoidable federal taxes.
