In 2016 I received SS payments but paid no taxes and I made more than I was allowed to according to the IRS SS rules so was set up on a payment plan @ $100/moth. It is now 2020 and I am 67 as of February and they are still taking $100/month to pay back the SS money. At the same time, they stopped paying me my SS money since 2016 - March 2020 to pay back the SS I received in 2016. This looks to me like double or more payback to the IRS. They say there is still a balance due. I think they OWE ME money. I do I resolve this?

Hi,

I'm not an expert on IRS regulations, so I can't help you with anything involving your taxes. What I can tell you, though, is that if you were under full retirement age (FRA) throughout 2016 and if you were drawing Social Security benefits, Social Security would have needed to withhold $1 of your benefits for each $2 that you earned in excess of $15,720. If they didn't withhold enough, then you'd be expected to repay any overpayment of benefits to Social Security.

I don't have enough details about your benefit or earnings history to know how much you may have been overpaid or how long it might take to recover the overpayment. You say that Social Security stopped paying you from March 2016 to March 2020, but I don't know if those benefits were withheld to recover an overpayment, or because you were still earning too much in those years to be eligible for benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/whileworking.html). Social Security's earnings test continues to apply until the month you reach full retirement age (FRA).

If you think Social Security owes you money, you'll probably want to start out by contacting them and asking them to explain any overpayment of benefits and how it was recovered. You could also try filing a formal request for appeal (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10041.pdf), but requests for appeal must normally be submitted within 60 days of the date that you're notified of the determination that you're seeking to appeal.

Best, Jerry