Is Overseas Earned Income taxable for Social Security?

[WBH]

Is Overseas Earned Income taxable for Social Security?

Many naturalized citizens going back to tehjir hoem coyuntry to work
told me they do not pay SS taxes and tehy say tehur already paid 10 years
so there is no extra benefit from continuing paying SS taxes.

But by law is is required for citizens to pay SS taxes on world wide EARNED income?

 

[sanjoseaug20]

I am not clear on the legal requirement. However, the part about "extra benefits" ... I think your benefits will be much smaller if you paid for 10 years vs paying for 20, 30 or 40 years. If you look at the annual SS mailer, it tells you that there are assumptions about you continuing to make the same salary for all future years.

 

[WBH]

I am not clear on the legal requirement. However, the part about "extra benefits" ... I think your benefits will be much smaller if you paid for 10 years vs paying for 20, 30 or 40 years. If you look at the annual SS mailer, it tells you that there are assumptions about you continuing to make the same salary for all future years.

I am not sure. It seems my benefits (retirement, survial, disbility etc) increases a little bit for each extra year after first 10 years. But I am not sure if increase benefits are due to more SS taxes paid or just
adjustment by SSA for inflation

 

[baikal3]

Is Overseas Earned Income taxable for Social Security?

No, absolutely not. Worldwide income is only subject to the U.S. federal income tax.

However, only wages earned in the U.S. (and even not everywhere in the U.S. as there are some states that opted out of the social security system for their state workers, e.g. Illinois) are subject to the social security taxes.

 

[WBH]

No, absolutely not. Worldwide income is only subject to the U.S. federal income tax.

I googled keyword earned income+overseas etc but I do not see a conclusive message on this issue. One site indicate one need to pay SS taxes on abraod earned income
if there is no SS tax in that country, otherwise one does not need to pay regardless
of whether that country has a SS treaty with USA or not.

 

[baikal3]

I googled keyword earned income+overseas etc but I do not see a conclusive message on this issue. One site indicate one need to pay SS taxes on abraod earned income
if there is no SS tax in that country, otherwise one does not need to pay regardless
of whether that country has a SS treaty with USA or not.

You are just not reading those links carefully enough - they are generally talking about U.S. income tax, rather than social security taxes.
The social security taxes are levied only on wages (not on all income) earned in the U.S.
There are a few narrow exceptions where wages earned outside of the U.S. are still subject to the U.S. social security tax, see the IRS explanation:
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=97160,00.html