Federal Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance; Report of Earnings Under the Social Security Earnings Test

This proposed rule would amend our regulations regarding reports of earnings to the Social Security Administration (SSA) required of beneficiaries who work and earn more than the applicable exempt amount. Beneficiaries under age 70, who work and earn more than the applicable exempt amount, are required by law to report their earnings to SSA within three months and 15 days following the close of their tax year (usually April 15). As a result of our ongoing efforts both to improve customer service and to reduce the public's paperwork burden, we propose to change our regulations to state that we can accept the W-2 report filed by the employer with SSA, and/or the self-employment income tax return filed by the beneficiary with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as the report of earnings. We will use the information (wages and net earnings from self-employment) contained in those reports together with other pertinent information to adjust benefits under the earnings test.