# Question about earnings while on Social Security **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 20, 2019, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-earnings-while-on-social-security/838935 "2019-08-20T14:27:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-earnings-while-on-social-security/838935/1 "2019-08-20T14:27:45Z")
I plan on retiring later this your and going on Social Security, and according to [this pdf from the government](https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10069.pdf) I can still earn up to $17, 640 without having money deducted from my monthly Social Security check…but I don’t know if that is supposed to be gross, or net. Help? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-earnings-while-on-social-security/838935/2 "2019-08-20T14:30:08Z")
Pretty sure it would be gross income. They use that term in the pdf you linked > [@](#): > > If you work for someone else, only your > wages count toward Social Security’s > earnings limits. If you’re self-employed, > we count only your net earnings from > self-employment. For the earnings > limits, we don’t count income such as > other government benefits, investment > earnings, interest, pensions, annuities, > and capital gains. We do count an > employee’s contribution to a pension > or retirement plan, however, if the > contribution amount is included in the > employee’s gross wages. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-earnings-while-on-social-security/838935/3 "2019-08-20T14:34:47Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Pretty sure it would be gross income. They use that term in the pdf you linked But the second sentence refers to _net_ earnings, thus the confusion. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-earnings-while-on-social-security/838935/4 "2019-08-20T14:36:45Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I plan on retiring later this your and going on Social Security, and according to [this pdf from the government](https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10069.pdf) I can still earn up to $17, 640 without having money deducted from my monthly Social Security check…but I don’t know if that is supposed to be gross, or net. Help? gross income. and the limit applies only if you are less than 66 years old. There are special rules if this is your first year in SS. Those rules help people who don’t retire on their birthday and earn some pre-retirement income the year they retire. They also make it more complicated for anyone who earns income during that first year of retirement. enjoy retirement! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-earnings-while-on-social-security/838935/5 "2019-08-20T14:39:36Z")
Less than 66(born in September of '57), and I was thinking of waiting until the end of the year just to decomplicate matters. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-earnings-while-on-social-security/838935/6 "2019-08-20T15:20:10Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > But the second sentence refers to _net_ earnings, thus the confusion. That second sentence is about the self-employed - “net earnings from self-employment” means what’s left over after subtracting business expenses from gross income ( which is gross revenue minus the costs of goods sold). It’s not the same as gross income for a wage-earner. ---
**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-earnings-while-on-social-security/838935/7 "2019-08-21T01:44:22Z")
I realize my situation is different, but I’m betting its most certainly gross. I’m receiving Social Security Disability and I’m allowed to earn up to $1220 per month without it affecting my disability benefit. That amount is gross earnings. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-earnings-while-on-social-security/838935/8 "2019-08-21T03:02:14Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > That second sentence is about the self-employed - “net earnings from self-employment” means what’s left over after subtracting business expenses from gross income ( which is gross revenue minus the costs of goods sold). It’s not the same as gross income for a wage-earner. It’s actually slightly more complicated than that. The term “net earnings from self-employment” is the amount of your profit that your income tax is based on, which is the equivalent wage of a wage-earner, which is slightly less than the business’s profit. Because the businessperson pays both halves of the SS/Med payroll tax as self-employment tax, one-half of their self-employment tax is a deduction in computing “net earnings from self-employment”, on which basis any Social Security benefits would be reduced. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-earnings-while-on-social-security/838935/9 "2019-08-21T03:59:03Z")
Last year we theoretically had a fairly large income, but it was all from investment earnings and capital gains, and our SS was not affected. My wife is a writer, but her income after expenses is fairly small. People getting SS while working are a different story.