Perhaps you saw the headline on the White House’s press release: “No Tax on Social Security is a Reality in the One Big Beautiful Bill”

Or maybe you saw the e-mail that the Social Security Administration released (at the best of new head, political appointee Frank Bisignano) which claimed “The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries”.

To cut to the chase, both of those statements are at best, misleading.

The OBBBA (or should we be calling it the OBBA now that it’s a law and not a bill?) — doesn’t change, by one iota, the amount or number of people who will be including SS in their AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) when computing their income taxes.

The Act has nothing whatsoever to do with SS specifically — doesn’t change anything about SS benefits, doesn’t change the formula which determines how much, if any, of your benefits are included in taxable income before computing your taxes.

What the Act did was simply add a new *general* tax cut for everyone over 65 and under certain income limits. It’s just a tax deduction which applies — whether you collect benefits or not — and whether you itemize or not.

That will lead to some people who collect SS (and some who don’t!) not paying any taxes now where before they did.

By that stretch of steps, yes, one could claim that as a result of this tax cut, there are some people currently collecting SS and paying taxes who won’t be once it’s in effect. The same thing can be said about, for example, the now substantially enlarged SALT (State And Local Taxes) deduction — there are people who were paying taxes before but who won’t now because they are getting bigger deductions.

But the new deduction — no matter how many times folks claim it’s about Social Security — has nothing whatsoever to do with Social Security. It’s available to people who don’t collect Social Security exactly the same as for people who do.

Moreover, the claim that the Act is somehow responsible for a majority of SS beneficiaries no longer paying taxes on those benefits? That’s also misleading. Per the Administration’s own reports (via the US Treasury) — under the law prior to the enactment of the OBBBA — approximately 64% of SS beneficiaries over the age of 65 *already* paid no income taxes on those benefits (either because the formula which determines how much SS to include in taxable income didn’t include any of their benefits — or because they had other income — and deductions — which offset it such that they ended up not owing any taxes (standard deduction, itemized deductions, income in the zero-percent bracket, etc).

Subsequent to the OBBBA taking effect, it’s expected that the existing majority — 64% — who don’t pay taxes — will be expanded to approximately 88%. So — yes — this new tax deduction will help fewer people over 65 pay income taxes. But it’s not responsible for a “majority” — by any stretch — nor is it in any way specific to Social Security, no matter how many headlines suggest otherwise.

[Reference re: (a) the White House claim; and (b) the US Treasury numbers — https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/07/no-tax-on-social-security-is-a-reality-in-the-one-big-beautiful-bill/ ]