Ask Larry

What Happens When Calculating My Retirement?

Good afternoon,
I am a teacher for Miami-Dade County Public schools. I am in a pension program where I contribute 3% and my county employer contributes 3%. I was inquiring about my future Social Security retirement amount. I was reading about the Windfall Elimination Provision and wondered how that will impact my retirement. According to the school district's website, 6.2% of my salary is taxed for Social Security. So when calculating my retirement, what happens? On MySSA, it says that I will receive approximately $2,805. I appreciate your help!
Thank you for your time!

Hi. If Social Security taxes have been withheld from your wages throughout the time that you've worked for your employer then receipt of a pension from their pension plan won't cause your Social Security benefit rate to be reduced. The Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) only applies when a person receives a pension that's based on their earnings that weren't subject to Social Security taxes (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf).

Therefore, assuming that you won't receive any pensions based on your earnings that were exempt from Social Security taxes then the benefit estimate shown on Social Security's website should be reasonably accurate. However, you may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze the options available to you in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits.

Best, Jerry

Posted: 
Dec 9 2021 - 5:18pm
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