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Age doesn't matter for contributions to Roth IRAs. Regardless of your age, if you have earned wages you can contribute to a Roth IRA. While the contributions to a Roth will not lower your income for tax purposes, the money you put in will grow tax deferred without any required minimum distributions. And distributions from a Roth won't subject your Social Security benefits to taxation..It's hard to plan your optimal retirement age without a realistic idea of what to expect in lifetime Social Security income. Yet, according TSCL's 2017 Senior Survey, 71% of survey participants said that's exactly the situation they were in when they filed a claim for Social Security benefits. They did not know, and Social Security did not supply any estimate of what they could expect in total lifetime Social Security income based on their choice of retirement age..Federal law prohibits the two Social Security trust funds from borrowing or transferring payroll taxes from one program to the other without Congressional action. While such action has been taken 11 times in the past to temporarily avert a Social Security funding shortfall, a TSCL poll conducted in July of last year found that less than 1 percent of participants say that shifting revenues from one trust fund to another would be the best way to fix the program..Unfortunately, it is not as cut-and-dried as "everyone will now pay per month for their insulin." It is much more complicated than that..Fifty-six percent of participants in a national survey by The Senior Citizens League say they pay taxes on their Social Security benefits. "The tax on Social Security income takes new retirees by surprise," says TSCL Chairman Ed Cates. "This is one retirement expense that must be carefully planned for. The government today taxes the Social Security benefits of a majority of older adults, even people with very modest middle incomes," he notes..By Jessie Gibbons, Legislative Director."But all bets would be off if the current payroll tax system is eliminated, or changed to something else," Johnson says. Getting rid of the payroll tax raises a great many questions as to how benefits would be calculated. Currently, retirement benefits are calculated on the 35 years of highest earnings. "Because wages tend to grow over time, replacing the current system with something else could mean lower benefits," Johnson points out..During the meetings, the following issues were discussed: Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, Social Security Notch fairness, Social Security Totalization agreement reform, Social Security credits earned for work done illegally, and repeal of both the windfall elimination provision and the government pension offset. Support was expressed for many of these key issues, and TSCL looks forward to working with these offices in the future..In addition, one new cosponsor Rep. Marcy Kaptur signed on to Rep. Peter DeFazio's No Loopholes in Social Security Taxes Act, bringing the total to twenty-eight. Rep. DeFazio's bill would subject all income over 0,000 to the Social Security payroll tax, reportedly adding another fifty years to the solvency of the Trust Fund. Currently, the payroll tax is capped at 3,700, and no income over that amount is taxed.