I am collecting SS but it is lower because I receive a pension from working in the school system. I am now eligible for survivors SS from my ex husband. Will his SS be reduced because of windfall tax.

Hi,

Your widow's benefits wouldn't be reduced due to the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which is not a tax by the way (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf), but it sounds like your survivor benefits would likely be subject to at least a partial offset due to the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision (https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10007.pdf).

GPO can cause a person's survivor benefits to be offset by 2/3rds of the amount of any government pensions that they receive which are based on their earnings from any level of government work in the U.S. where they were exempt from paying Social Security taxes. So, if you didn't pay Social Security taxes on your earnings from the school system from which you receive a pension, any survivor benefits that you could otherwise qualify for will likely be at least partially offset.

Our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) if fully capable of handling both WEP and GPO calculations, so you may want to consider using the software to fully analyze the options available to you in order to determine your best strategy for maximizing benefits.

Best, Jerry