I am 68 and half years old. I'm gainfully employed and making $140,000 a year.. I am not collecting social security currently. Each.year I have worked in the last 40 years I have reached nearly or exceeded my social security taxes that were taken with the payroll taxes. I want to continue working until at least age 70 years old. I want to apply for security benefits now and receive benefits for 12 months and suspend the benefits until I turn 70 years old..

Will my benefit amount be different if I didn't apply for social security until I turn age 70 or I apply for benefits now and then suspend until I turn age 70 with the assumption I will be working with the income of exceeding of $140000 per year past the age 70 and get the higher social security benefit that I would have gotten at age 70 if I didn't apply until age 70.

If I apply for benefits now and suspend benefits at 12 months will I have to pay back the full amount I collected for the 12 months to get the full amount I would have gotten at age 70 if I did not apply benefits until age 70?

Hi. If you start drawing your Social Security retirement benefits now and later voluntarily suspend them, you wouldn't have to pay back any benefits. But, your permanent benefit rate would then be lower than it would have been if you'd waited until age 70 to start drawing. Drawing benefits prior to age 70 would lower your benefit rate by roughly 2/3rds of 1% for each month that you collect and keep benefits prior to age 70.

Alternatively, you could claim benefits prior to age 70, collect them temporarily, and then withdraw (not suspend) your application within 12 months and pay back all of the benefits you received. If you do that, you'll then need to reapply when you want to start drawing benefits again. Also, you can only withdraw one application in your lifetime, and your withdrawal request must be filed within 12 months of your initial month of entitlement to benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/withdrawal.html).

Filing for and later withdrawing and paying back benefits wouldn't lower your eventual benefit rate when you reapply, but it could turn into a big hassle for you. Social Security doesn't do anything fast these days, so it would likely take them a long time to process your withdrawal request and credit your refund of benefits. That could be problematic in getting your benefits started up again when you reapply.

Your current and future earnings could increase your future benefit rate regardless of when you start collecting your benefits. Social Security retirement benefits are based on an average of a person's highest 35 years of Social Security covered wage-indexed earnings, and a person's benefit rate can be recomputed after any year in which they earn enough to raise their benefit rate. Additional years of earnings only increase a person's benefit rate if they're higher than one or more of the 35 years currently being used to calculate their benefit rate.

You may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze all of your options so that you can determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry