Social Security sends wrong data for taxes

Corrected information and an apology were to be sent out today.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Around 2.7 million people have incorrect Social Security payment information on a needed tax document, the Social Security Administration said Thursday as the agency moved quickly to mail out corrections.

The document affected is the Social Security Benefit Statement, or Form SSA-1099. That document is needed by Social Security recipients to complete their federal income tax return and to find out whether their benefits are subject to income tax.

The Social Security Administration mailed those statements to 53 million people in January. It goes to people who received a Social Security payment during the previous calendar year.

The agency said a computer programming error caused Medicare Part C and/or Part D premium deduction amounts, and some garnishment deduction amounts, for 2006 to be included in the amounts reported for 2007.

That meant the “Benefits for 2007” fields, which are boxes 3 and 5 of the SSA-1099, and the “Description of Amount in Box 3” field had incorrect amounts for the affected people.

Corrected SSA-1099s and an apology will be in the mail by today, the agency said. The programming error also has been fixed.

The corrected SSA-1099 will have “Corrected Notice” on the envelope and “Corrected Tax Information” on the SSA-1099 itself in red typeface.

Social Security employees in field offices will be able to tell recipients whether they will receive a revised SSA-1099, the agency said.

The Social Security Administration also plans to send the Internal Revenue Service corrected information.