I am 67 years old and have held back on taking my social security as I have not filed my taxes for the last five years in which I was making some good money, Iam wondering if I should wait until I get the taxes current or can I claim it now and will social security adjust my allowed amount

Hi,

Your Social Security retirement benefit rate will be based on your highest 35 years of wage-indexed earnings (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10070.pdf). If your earnings in the past 5 years would be among those high 35, then Social Security would use them in the calculation of your benefit rate regardless of when you start drawing your benefits.

However, if you were self-employed and haven't yet paid the appropriate taxes on your net earnings, then the Statute of Limitations would preclude you from receiving credit for any self-employment earnings that are reported for tax purposes more than 3 years, 3 months and 15 days from the end of the year in which you had the earnings.

Before you file for benefits, you may want to strongly consider using our maximization software to compare your options and determine your optimal strategy for claiming your benefits.

Best, Jerry