Hello
My wife is senior to me by nine years and will turn 63 before the end of the year. We have been entrepreneurs and I still plan to work for the foreseeable future, being the sole employee of an llc which we own 50/50 that generates what income we have at the moment. Will income from our llc taxed as an s-corp affect social security if I am the only one drawing a salary and she only takes distributions (when available)? Would it matter if I was the sole owner of the llc, drew income and distributions and we filed separately (currently file jointly) ?thanks

Hi. No. The only income that counts for Social Security earnings test purposes are wages and self-employment income. So, if your wife isn't drawing a salary from the corporation then the only way that her income would count for earnings test purposes is if it's reported on schedule SE of her tax return and if her Social Security number is listed on the schedule SE. Whether or not you file a joint tax return is irrelevant. And, as long as your wife isn't performing active services for the corporation then it wouldn't be appropriate to report her income as either wages or self-employment earnings.

Before deciding when to start drawing benefits, though, your wife should strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze the options available to her in order to determine the best filing strategy for maximizing her benefits.

Best, Jerry