Social Security Taxes After Retirement

[DrRon]

My wife retired from a well-paying job 12 years ago and is receiving her pension and SS benefits.
She has decided to take on a part-time job a year ago and is receiving a salary with all the typical deductions - FICA, SS Tax and Medicare tax.
There is no way her little income will increase her SS benefits.
Is there any way to get the SS and Medicare taxes her employer is paying out of her salary refunded to her?

[flyingron]

No. You have to pay your SS/Medicare up to the limit whether you think you'll use them or not.

[Janke]

Her Social Security retirement benefits would have been based on her highest 35 years of wages. If there were some zero years in that 35 yeare period, these new wages would increase her monthly benefit, slightly. But if not, you are right that it may not increase her Social Security benefit. But she can't opt out.

[DrRon]

What an interesting lesson... after all these years of fully funding her retirement account she can't even take a part-time job without the government taking more taxes into the system from her with no benefit to show for it.

Do you suppose anyone is receiving SS benefits today who didn't contribute anything to the trust fund for the last 30 years?

[flyingron]

If you're just learning the lesson now, you've not been paying attention for 35 years?
While paying taxes is a prerequisite for qualifying for benefits, Social Security is not some sort of 401K plan where you are guaranteed to get out what you put in.
It is a government entitlement program just like everything else. There are benefits and there are taxes. You're no more entitled to opt out of Social Security than to pay for schools in your neighborhood when you have no children.

[Janke]

She may also have been paying property insurance or car insurance for all these years and yet never made a claim, no benefit to show for it either. And that may continue for the rest of her life with no benefit. Except the possibility of coverage in case of loss.

[Mr. Knowitall]

Do you suppose anyone is receiving SS benefits today who didn't contribute anything to the trust fund for the last 30 years?

Social Security has two components: earned benefits (e.g., retirement benefits, SSD) that are paid for out of FICA taxes, and programs for people of limited means without work history (SSI) that are paid for out of the general fund. For you or your family to receive earned benefits, you must have enough work credits to qualify for those benefits.

[flyingron]

The work credits are just a criteria for eligibility. The tax is just a tax that goes to run the programs whether you benefit from them or not.
At the current projections Medicare will be bankrupt before I qualify for it and social security won't last much longer, even though I have put in the maximum on both for the past 25 years.

[Janke]

That's amazing since there is no limit on taxable earnings for Medicare like there is for Social Security...

http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/240