Breadcrumbs

To quote Lewis Black, I don't have enough breadcrumbs to get home from here.

Just finished my taxes.  At the rate things are going, I may be the first American to have a negative Social Security Benefit.  Yep, I may have to pay the government for my SS.

Here's how this got started.

I paid Uncle Sam a premium (SS tax) for more that 20 years.  And Uncle said that when I got old and broke, he would pay me about $1400/month.  OK, I can work with that.

Uh no.  My medicare premium has to come out of that.  OK, now we're around $1300.

Uh no. Because I was covered by Teacher Retirement (mandatory) and paid no SS on those wages, I got hit with the WEP (windfall elimination provision) which says that I don't deserve the full 1300 so the basically cut in in half (down to about 600 now). OK, not what I was promised but .......

Uh no.  Because I have retirement income over a certain amount, my SS is taxable. Eighty five percent of it.  Amounts to about 900/year in additional taxes or about 75/month.  We're in the 500's now. Still I'm positive....

Uh no.  My little company (DNK Data Services, LLC) somehow miraculously turned a profit which comes into my personal income (pass through) to be taxed.  AND I HAVE TO PAY 15% of the profit to the Social Security Administration as self employment tax. Which means that if DNK makes enough money (which it hasn't), I'll have to pay more into SS that I draw out.

I already have to pay the government 13/month for my military retirement. That's not a typo. My military retirement is -$12.96 which my wife writes a check for each month.

But that's another story.