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\n Many Americans received an email from the Social Security Administration applauding the passage of President Trump’s megabill.
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Saul Loeb\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
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Saul Loeb\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
In the hours after Congress passed President Trump’s megabill, an email from the Social Security Administration hit the inboxes of many Americans. It applauded the legislation’s passage and said it includes a provision that “eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries.”<\/p>\n
But experts say the email was misleading and that what’s really in the new law is a bit more complicated.<\/p>\n What’s in the new law? <\/p>\n Trump campaigned on the promise of “no tax on Social Security benefits<\/a>.” But the new law doesn’t create a special exemption for taxes on Social Security benefits. Instead, it adds a new tax deduction for people 65 and older \u2014 and that means more of them will pay no taxes, or fewer taxes, on their Social Security benefits.<\/p>\n “The legislation that passed does make it so some people won’t pay taxes on their benefits,” says Marc Goldwein, senior vice president at the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “The reason is that it’ll make it so that some seniors won’t pay any taxes, because it increases their standard deduction.”<\/p>\n The new senior deduction is $6,000 a year for individuals 65 or older.<\/p>\n About that email \u2014 and why it’s controversial <\/p>\n On July 3, the Social Security Administration blasted out an email with the subject line “Social Security Applauds <\/strong>Passage of Legislation Providing Historic <\/strong>Tax Relief for Seniors.”<\/p>\n The agency is not in the practice of sending political emails, so this was notable.<\/p>\n But that wasn’t the only issue, says Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.<\/p>\n “The email was really pretty misleading. It included a number of assertions that simply are either not true or overstated or described in a way that is really going to confuse people,” says Gleckman.<\/p>\n First, the email implies that the bill changed how Social Security benefits are taxed \u2014 and the White House put out a news release<\/a> headlined “No Tax on Social Security is a Reality in the One Big Beautiful Bill.”<\/p>\n But Social Security benefits are taxed like other income, and this law doesn’t change that.<\/p>\n Second, the email says, “the bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits.”<\/p>\n Indeed, the White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that, under the new law, 88% of older adults receiving Social Security benefits will pay no taxes on them.<\/p>\n But Gleckman points out that by the administration’s own estimate<\/a>, almost two-thirds of Social Security recipients already don’t pay taxes on their benefits, because they don’t make enough money for that tax to kick in.<\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/npr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims3\/default\/strip\/false\/crop\/2503x2503+547+0\/resize\/100\/quality\/100\/format\/jpeg\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F34%2F3b%2F78f1e2b84f60a130d09135fb3e27%2Fgettyimages-2222867731.jpg\")
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