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SSDI & Self Employed Spouse

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drench19

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Arizona

Hello I have a question and some concerns. I'm a disabled Vet and receive both Va disability and ssdi. The Disability income is just enough to cover the basic bills and not much else. So my wife decided to start selling crafts and stuff online on site's like eBay to bring in extra income. She started off slow but now she is starting to make a decent amount of money.
We live in AZ which is a community property state.
I'm starting to worry that her business will impact my ssdi disability. I don't have any involvement in her business other than occasionally dropping some of her stuff at the post office when I go out.

Can someone please give me some advice as to how SSDI treats a spouses work activity and income when you live in a community property state?
Does her self employment income count towards me?
Is their anything I should do to protect myself? :confused:

Any information would be helpfull,
Many thanks
 


LdiJ

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Arizona

Hello I have a question and some concerns. I'm a disabled Vet and receive both Va disability and ssdi. The Disability income is just enough to cover the basic bills and not much else. So my wife decided to start selling crafts and stuff online on site's like eBay to bring in extra income. She started off slow but now she is starting to make a decent amount of money.
We live in AZ which is a community property state.
I'm starting to worry that her business will impact my ssdi disability. I don't have any involvement in her business other than occasionally dropping some of her stuff at the post office when I go out.

Can someone please give me some advice as to how SSDI treats a spouses work activity and income when you live in a community property state?
Does her self employment income count towards me?
Is their anything I should do to protect myself? :confused:

Any information would be helpfull,
Many thanks
If you are receiving SSDI (and not SSI) that is not income qualified, that is based on your disability and you SS work credits. Therefore your wife could make 100k and it would not have any impact on your SSDI.
 

drench19

Junior Member
Hello and thank you for the reply but i think i may have phrased the question wrong.

What i was trying to say is that I'm on SSDi as well as Va Disability. According to SSA I can't be involved in Substantially gainful employment and I am not allowed to earn more than a certain amount of money per month, per year.
I don't work and am not involved in my wife's business.

My wife started her own business and we live in a community property state so I believe and please correct me if i am wrong her income is treated as community income.
My worry is that when we file taxes at the end of the year ssdi will look at our tax returns and her business income and say that I have earned income based on the fact that we live in a community property state.

I'm not sure how the SSA deals with income on joint tax returns and community property law and I don't know if their are any steps we should take to protect ourselves. I've looked at the ssa website and everything on their is so vague.
thanks again for any assistance
 

Onderzoek

Member
You need to talk to the accountant to understand what your 1040 will look like with the Schedule C and the Schedule SE. I assume it will show your wife has self-employment income and will not show that you have self-employment income. You can both be liable for the income taxes on your joint taxable income which has nothing to do with being in a community property state. But being liable for income tax does not mean that the IRS or SSA believes that you went to work in a self-employment business.

You are looking for answers on the SSA web site for questions that have no bearing on SSDI benefits. The SSA web site explains what happens if you go to work. There are no answers to your wife's going to work because it is a non-issue, as far as SSA is concerned. There are many, many, many SSDI recipients who have working spouses and who file a joint tax return in community property and non-community property states. None of it matters to SSA.

Depending upon your adjusted gross income, it is also possible that you will owe some income tax on your SSDI benefits You'll need to talk to your tax preparer/accountant.

Drop the questions about community property since that has primarily to do with divorce, not income tax. Not answering any questions about VA benefits.
 
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