I worked many years in Uruguay before moving to US. Now I get to the necessary age to retire there for those years.
Now I am a US citizen and I have worked here enough to get my SS retirement. Is my retirement amount in US going to be reduce since I have the one in Uruguay. I am a citizen of both countries.
thanks for your explanation

Hi,

If you mean that you're getting a pension based on your work in Uruguay, then yes your U.S. Social Security retirement benefit rate will most likely be lowered due to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). WEP can cause a person's Social Security retirement or disability benefit rate to be calculated using an alternate, less generous, calculation formula than the one that's normally used to calculate those benefits (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf). WEP applies to anyone who receives a pension based on their earnings that were exempt from U.S. Social Security taxes, unless they meet one of the exceptions to WEP.

I don't have enough information about your work history to be able to give you any idea how much your benefit rate might be reduced, but the WEP guarantee provision would prevent your primary insurance amount (PIA) from being reduced by more than one-half of the amount of your non-covered pension. A person's PIA is equal to their Social Security retirement benefit rate if they start drawing their benefits at full retirement age (FRA).

You may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to fully analyze the options available to you in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing your benefits. Our software is fully programmed to handle calculations involving the WEP provision.

Best, Jerry