My father (71) is a small business owner. For many years his accountant made sure my father paid his taxes so he doesn't incur any IRS penalties but didn't file the actual tax returns,

I am not sure of the details, but my father says the above has cost him a decent amount in Social Security benefits. Something to the effect that the information on what he paid the IRS was not sent over to the SSA.

He went down to the SSA multiple times with data to prove his payments. Finally, they did something for him but they only did a look back of 3 years. My father says they missed around 4 years of payment history and they are refusing to update his file. He thinks these missing four years is costing him at least $200 a month in benefits.

Is there anything that can be done?

Thanks!

Monte

Hi Monte. Social Security can only credit self-employment earnings if you file a tax return and pay the appropriate self-employment taxes within 3 years 3 months and 15 days from the end of the year in which you had the self-employment earnings. If your father did in fact pay timely self-employment taxes to the IRS for any past years that weren't credited to his Social Security record, he could potentially receive credit if he can prove that he filed a timely tax return and paid the appropriate self-employment taxes. For detailed information on what's required, refer to the following section of Social Security's operations manual: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0301804150.

Best, Jerry