I will be 70 on 06/12/2020, but work till the end of 2020 an retire. My wife will be 64 in 2020 she will retire in july 2020. She will draw off of my social security an recieve half of what i get. Will this affect my wages for 2020.

Hi,

If your wife receives spousal benefits from your Social Security record it won't have any affect on your benefit rate or any wages that you earn. It may have an impact on your taxes, but that's not my area of expertise.

I don't know if you've already claimed your Social Security retirement benefits, but your wife's spousal rate won't necessarily be half of what you actually receive. Unreduced spousal benefits are calculated based on 50% of the worker's primary insurance amount (PIA), which is the amount that the worker would receive if he or she starts drawing their Social Security retirement benefits at their full retirement age (FRA). And, both spousal and retirement benefits are reduced for age if you claim them prior to FRA.

Furthermore, if your wife has enough earnings credits to be insured for Social Security retirement benefits on her own record, she'll be deemed to be filing for both her own benefits and for spousal benefits whenever she applies for either benefit. She would then receive essentially only the higher of the 2 rates, and her rate will be reduced if she starts drawing prior to FRA.

For example, say Katy files for her benefits in 2020 at age 64. Katy's PIA for her own Social Security retirement benefits is $600, and her husband's PIA is $2000. Katy's husband is older than her and started drawing his benefits at age 70, so he receives 32% more than his PIA, or $2640. Katy's unreduced spousal rate is calculated by subtracting her PIA from 50% of her husband's PIA, which in this case is $400 (i.e. $2000/2 - $600). If Katy had waited until FRA to claim her benefits, she would have received her own full rate of $600 plus her unreduced spousal rate of $400, giving her a combined rate equal to 50% of her husband's PIA. But, since Katy is filing at age 64 her own rate is reduced to $506 and her spousal rate is reduced to $322, making her combined rate $828.

So, in the above example Katy's husband's benefit rate is actually more than 3 times as much as Katy's rate, even though she qualifies for spousal benefits. Katy would only receive a full half of her husband's actual benefit rate if both of them had applied for their benefits when they reached their respective FRAs. You and your wife may want to strongly consider using our software (https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/purchase) to explore and compare your various filing options so that you can determine your best overall strategy for claiming your benefits.

Best, Jerry