Maintaining US Social Security eligibility

[Ben There]

I have been an ex pat now for 5 years. I live in Israel, have an Israeli job, passport and pay taxes to the IL govmnt. I have not paid taxes in 5 years to the states as I have no income there. I am not retired nor will be for another 15 years or so. Someone recently suggested (not here) that I should file, pay or something once a year just to keep my social security status alive. Thoughts on this or filing vs not filing.

BT

[Exon123]

If You ever plan on drawing US Social Security it might be good advise to start filing. Moreover You need 40 quarters, (10 years employment) to qualify.

Exon

[Precocious One]

I have been an ex pat now for 5 years. I Live in Israel, have an Israeli job, passport and pay taxes to the IL govmnt. I have not paid taxes in 5 years to the states as I have no income there. I am not retired nor will be for another 15 years or so. SOmeone recently suggested (not here) that I should file, pay or something once a year just to keep my social security status alive. Thoughts on this or filing vs not filing.

BTI don't know how old you are, but as a GenX I am anticipating absolutely nothing. The whole system is a fruadulent Ponzi, just like the majority of 401k's. As for your tax situation, the amount you pay to Israel is credited to your US tax bill, however, you still need to file a US tax return. Theoretically, Exon is correct regarding the 40 quarters for qualifying purposes.

[Spirit Rider]

You do need 40 quarters to be "eligible" for Social Security, but.

Your benefit is based on the average of your highest 35 (yes 35) years of earnings. If you have less than 35 years, zero will be used for those years to calculate the average.

However, if you have a good solid 20 or 25 years of earnings it might not matter much. That is because the formula for calculating the benefit is heavily weighted to help lower / medium incomes. For example, if you you earned the SS taxable maximum for twenty years and had no earnings in any other year you would still get about 80% of the maximum benefit.

[Spirit Rider]

One other note, there is no requirement for earnings history to be contiguous. If your qualified it doesn't matter if you have no earnings in the twenty years before retirement.

[Precocious One]

You do need 40 quarters to be "eligible" for Social Security, but.

Your benefit is based on the average of your highest 35 (yes 35) years of earnings. If you have less than 35 years, zero will be used for those years to calculate the average.

However, if you have a good solid 20 or 25 years of earnings it might not matter much. That is because the formula for calculating the benefit is heavily weighted to help lower / medium incomes. For example, if you you earned the SS taxable maximum for twenty years and had no earnings in any other year you would still get about 80% of the maximum benefit.The formula for calculating my benefits is quite simple. 100 percent of zero. I don't plan on living until I am 85 (presumed future qualifying age) This was just another tax that my generation had to pay, and for some of us who were self-employed, double at that.

It is what it is.

[Ed Handy]

The formula for calculating my benefits is quite simple. 100 percent of zero. I don't plan on living until I am 85 (presumed future qualifying age) This was just another tax that my generation had to pay, and for some of us who were self-employed, double at that.

It is what it is.They may bump the retirement age a bit, but I don't see it going to anywhere near 85. The next logical bump is to 69, and if they go beyond that it will probably phase in for people born in the 1980s and thus will not be my problem.

As for expecting to die young, how depressing. 85 is YOUNG by some standards - my grandfather still had a sex life at 85 (he lived to 99) and I plan to still be following his example then, not dead.

As another Gen-Xer (and on the younger side of Gen X, at that) I certainly do expect social security to be there. Benefit levels will almost certainly go down a bit relative to current estimates, but given that they're currently indexed to wage growth rather than inflation, they can go down a good bit and still come out ahead comparable to current benefits adjusted for inflation.