Well, I certainly no tax expert... but I know about *this* particular issue from personal experience with my husband's SSDI claim. He was working a state job as a student that was exempt for social security taxes -- they paid in to a state fund, but only above a certain amount. He was a student, so hae got nothing. At the time, we had no idea what that really meant except more $$ in our pocket at the time.
Well... a few years later, he has an accident and become permanently disabled. His SSDI claim became a major cluster-you-know-what because, even though he worked, he didn't have Social Security credits. There was no doubt as to his disability... but his benefits are severely reduced because of it and all told, he's lost SSDI benefits in the tens of thousands of dollars, and his monthly payment is half what is should be... all because if a this exemption we didn't understand at the time. Turns out, he could have filed paperwork to not take the exemption, but he was never told this... and we were poor married college students working on-campus jobs. We knew nothing.... until we were in the middle of ALJ hearings and they explained it all. THere was nothing we could really do about it.
It's something people just don't realize and I wish more people did. You really don't know if you'll become disabled... and if you don't have your credits maxed each year through other work... or you aren't independently wealthy... taking the exemption could really come back to haunt you one day. |
