Fairly quick

[mariorivera830]

This is a continuation from the post here: http://community.hadit.com/topic/61568-ssdi-denied-says-i-can-be-a-cashier/ 

      Well, long story short, I got my approval....

 

or so I think. I received a letter from the SSA asking if I wanted to include my wife and children in my claim. Of course I would! As soon as I opened it, I called up Allsup (my ssdi attorney) and asked them what it meant. I was told that this is something they mostly ask for when approved. But I was told that it doesn't mean I was approved until I get my letter stating so. 

Great.... So I log in to my SSA account online and see a payment posted. I check my account and low and behold, there it is! Backpaid from my claim date: Dec 2014. But my award letter on the site says my payment is $0.00 to be paid on the 4th wednesday of the month. 

I have yet to get my letter and I assume that my lawyers got their cut already. 

My question is:

Now that I will have 100% VA (not p&t yet) and SSDI coming soon, What type of tax implications does this have? My wife doesn't work and we have been able to cut our bills down enough to live comfortably off of my disability, her caregiver money (tier 2) and now SSDI, so hopefully she will never have to. But we still pay mortgage taxes, school tuition, and other tax stuff. Should I still file taxes based on my SSDI or anything else? 

We're new to this totally disabled thing and we don't want to mess with Uncle Sam. 

 

Thanks everyone for your help and positive thoughts. 

[TALON II FE]

I finally applied, have been dorking around with the paperwork for the last 6 months.  I received a VA Rating last month, hoping that will help with SSDI.  I did get an attorney.  The get a percentage, but I haven't been able to even seek employment since I retired from AD 15 months ago.  SSDI, I believe, only goes back one year, so there does not appear to be any incentive for the law office (not really a lawyer, just telephone worker bees) to drag things out.  I would lose more then the representation fees otherwise.  We will see...

[flores97]

Good luck with your claim, Talon II, I am getting ready to file my appeal, I will keep everyone updated on progress.

[Vync]

You do know with new laws SSDI must also find you unemployable if the VA did? Also if a VA JUDGE finds you unemployable then SSDI MUST do the same per the BRAVE ACT. Read about it helped me a lot because SSDI is saying I can go back to work after 3 years of SSDI but the VA has already found me unemployable AFTER the SSDI AOJ made her decision. So SSDI must NOW find me unemployable just like the VA did.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the BRAVE Act to link unemployable status between VA and SSDI was never signed into law. There is also another BRAVE Act that was submitted earlier this year to help with employment and has nothing to do with SSDI. It seems the lawmakers like to recycle acronyms.

This is a link to the Social Security study findings behind the the BRAVE act.

BRAVE act never signed into law

This is the first footnote from the article indicating it was never enacted:

H.R. 4054 and S. 2759, both titled the Benefit Rating Acceleration for Veteran Entitlements Act of 2009. Neither bill was enacted in 2009 and, through 2013, neither had been reintroduced.

Here is a link to another topic here on Hadit discussing this VA/SSDI situation: http://community.hadit.com/topic/65022-the-brave-act-100tdiu-and-ssa/

However, on the positive side of things, SSDI can fast track 100% P&T VA claims.

I wish you the best of luck on your claim!

[rpowell01]

Yes my mistake because SSA still has that on their website. But please read this if you don't think the VA decision doesn't hold great weight in a SSA/SSDI decision:

 

McCartey v. Barnhart, 298 F.3d 1072 (9^th Cir. 2002

[Chuck75]

On 12/10/2015 at 11:39 PM, mariorivera830 said:

This is a continuation from the post here: http://community.hadit.com/topic/61568-ssdi-denied-says-i-can-be-a-cashier/ 

      Well, long story short, I got my approval....

 

or so I think. I received a letter from the SSA asking if I wanted to include my wife and children in my claim. Of course I would! As soon as I opened it, I called up Allsup (my ssdi attorney) and asked them what it meant. I was told that this is something they mostly ask for when approved. But I was told that it doesn't mean I was approved until I get my letter stating so. 

Great.... So I log in to my SSA account online and see a payment posted. I check my account and low and behold, there it is! Backpaid from my claim date: Dec 2014. But my award letter on the site says my payment is $0.00 to be paid on the 4th wednesday of the month. 

I have yet to get my letter and I assume that my lawyers got their cut already. 

My question is:

Now that I will have 100% VA (not p&t yet) and SSDI coming soon, What type of tax implications does this have? My wife doesn't work and we have been able to cut our bills down enough to live comfortably off of my disability, her caregiver money (tier 2) and now SSDI, so hopefully she will never have to. But we still pay mortgage taxes, school tuition, and other tax stuff. Should I still file taxes based on my SSDI or anything else? 

We're new to this totally disabled thing and we don't want to mess with Uncle Sam. 

 

Thanks everyone for your help and positive thoughts. 

"We're new to this totally disabled thing and we don't want to mess with Uncle Sam."

Well, you are already doing so, of necessity!  Anyway, assuming SSA approved for the same conditions that the VA did, the next effort may be to obtain P&T status from the VA.

In either case, there are various benefits related to spouse and children that are potentially available from SSA and the VA. In general, they are not duplicate.

 

[TexasMarine]

The VA money you get (retro and monthly), is tax-free.  In other words, you need not account for it on the IRS tax forms.

SSDI though, is only taxable, if your nominal taxable dollars reach a certain level.  You DO account for them in one section of the tax form, but then, if your taxable income falls below a threshold, you don't add it in to your total.   Somewhat confusing, until you look at the tax form itself (whichever one you use).  Let's say, for a married person, filing jointly, that threshold is $64,000.  Then you'd have to have taxable income of $64,000 before you have to add in your SSDI.  The form actual only specifies that your SSDI is only taxable on the first 33% of SSDI (or something like that amount).  (I have not provided accurate numbers because I don't have a tax form in front of me, and because the amounts differ year to year.

Suffice it to say, if you and your wife are living on VA and SSDI "totally", you won't have a tax burden at all.  ;)  YOU DO HOWEVER, need to file the right tax form each year, even if your tax is $0.

I hope this  helps.