Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump raised the idea of ending taxes on Social Security benefits in a recent social media post.

“SENIORS SHOULD NOT PAY TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY!” Trump trumpeted on his social media site Truth Social on Wednesday.

The former president, however, provided no further details on the proposal, which follows a proposal by the candidate earlier in the campaign to end taxes on tips.

Some analysts, meanwhile, said the elimination of Social Security taxes could have major repurcussions on the benefits program and Medicare.

Currently, seniors don’t pay taxes on Social Security benefits if they earn less than $25,000 per individual, or $32,000 per married couple. The tax is levied on combined income, which includes account adjusted gross income, half their Social Security benefits and nontaxable interest.

Above the combined income thresholds, seniors may have to pay taxes on up to 50% of benefits, with the revenue going to the Social Security retirement trust fund. Those with combined incomes of at least $34,000 per individual, or $44,000 per couple, could pay income tax on up to 85% of their benefits, with those funds going to Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund, known as Medicare Part A.

This year, the tax on Social Security tax benefits is expected to contribute $94 billion to the Social Security fund, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB).

While removing the tax would help older Americans struggling with higher costs in the short tun, the proposal would hurt Social Security, Medicare and the federal budget, the July 31 CRFB analysis claims.

Social Security and Medicare go-broke dates were pushed back in May by trustees of the fund, a result of the improving economy. Social Security’s trust funds will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035, instead of last year’s estimate of 2034. When insolvency hits, Social Security will only be able to pay 83% of benefits, the trustees said.

While lifting the levy would benefit many older Americans initially, the proposal would hasten insolvency for Social Security and Medicare and hurt the federal budget, if Trump and Congress don’t come up with a way to replace the lost revenue, the CRFB said.

Trump’s proposal to cut Social Security income taxes would cut the program’s lifespan by a year, shrink Medicare’s lifespan by six years and increase federal deficits from $1.6 trillion to $1.8 trillion through 2035, the think tank said.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democrat nominee for president, has not taken a formal position on Social Security yet, but has advanced President Joe Biden’s strategy for revamping the funds.

Like Biden, Harris has advanced  additional taxes on wealthy individuals with incomes of more than $400,000 to help extend the SSA's solvency. Currently, up to $168,600 in earnings are subject to Social Security payroll taxes.
The White House said in an earlier fact sheet that it is opposed to "any proposal to cut benefits, as well as proposals to privatize Social Security.”

Harris was called out by Politifact, a factchecker run by left-leaning Poytner Institute, for repeating the unsubstantiated claim that "Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security."

“Kamala Harris repeats dubious claim that Donald Trump would cut Social Security,” Politifact wrote in a blog July 31.

“Trump’s campaign website says that not ‘a single penny’ should be cut from Social Security, and he’s repeated similar lines in campaign rallies,” according to Politifact.

Trump, however, said most recently in a March 2024 CNBC interview that "there’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting." 

Politifact said the former president “quickly walked that statement back, and his CNBC comment stands at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign."