Yes, you can collect Social Security at 66 and work full time. Nothing in the law forces you to stop working when benefits start. The complication for anyone born in 1960 or later is that 66 is no longer full retirement age — 67 is — so the Social Security earnings test will trim your monthly check during that gap year if your job pays above a set limit. The reduction isn’t permanent, and full-time work at 66 can even push your future benefit higher.
Why 66 Is No Longer Full Retirement Age
If you were born in 1960 or later, your full retirement age is 67.1Social Security Administration. Benefits Planner: Retirement – Born in 1960 or Later For decades, 65 was the number. Then it crept up to 66 and a few months for people born in the late 1950s. Congress set the final landing spot at 67 for everyone born in 1960 onward.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 416 – Additional Definitions – Section: (l) Retirement Age
This is not trivia. The earnings test — the rule that can reduce your benefit when you work — only applies before you reach full retirement age. If you’re 66 and born in 1960 or later, you still have a year to go, and every dollar you earn above the annual limit can trigger a withholding until the month you turn 67.
How the Earnings Test Hits a Full-Time Salary
In 2026, if you are under full retirement age for the entire year, you can earn up to $24,480 before Social Security withholds anything. For every $2 you earn above that limit, $1 gets withheld from your benefit payments.3Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet A full-time salary blows past that ceiling early in the year.
A more generous limit applies in the calendar year you actually hit full retirement age. In 2026, that limit is $65,160, and Social Security withholds only $1 for every $3 you earn over it. Better still, only earnings from the months before your birthday month count.4Social Security Administration. What Happens if I Work and Get Social Security Retirement Benefits? Starting the month you reach full retirement age, the earnings test disappears entirely. From that point forward, your salary doesn’t affect your benefit at all.5Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
What Counts as Earnings
Only wages from a job and net self-employment income count. Pensions, annuities, investment income, and dividends do not.6Social Security Administration. What Income Is Included in Your Social Security Record? Some people shift to part-time consulting and lean on portfolio withdrawals during the year before full retirement age for exactly this reason.
Spousal and Survivor Benefits
If you collect spousal or survivor benefits rather than your own retirement benefit, the same $24,480 and $65,160 thresholds and the same withholding formulas apply.5Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working One wrinkle: if you collect a spousal benefit on a spouse who claimed early, your spouse’s excess earnings can reduce your spousal payment too.
Withheld Benefits Come Back Later
Here’s what makes the earnings test less brutal than it looks. When you reach full retirement age, Social Security recalculates your monthly benefit and credits you for every month benefits were withheld.7Social Security Administration. Program Explainer: Retirement Earnings Test The adjustment permanently raises your monthly check going forward. There’s no lump sum; instead, the higher payment spreads the returned money across your remaining life expectancy. Live to an average age and you roughly break even. Live longer and you come out ahead.
Working at 66 Can Increase Your Future Benefit
Social Security calculates your benefit using your highest 35 years of inflation-adjusted earnings. A solid salary at 66 can replace a lower-earning year from earlier in your career, pushing the number up. The agency reviews your earnings record each year and recalculates your payment automatically when a higher-earning year improves the formula.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 415 – Computation of Primary Insurance Amount You don’t have to file anything.
Taxes on Your Benefits When You Also Have a Salary
A full-time paycheck at 66 almost guarantees some of your Social Security benefits will be federally taxed. The IRS uses a “combined income” figure: your adjusted gross income, plus any nontaxable interest, plus half your annual Social Security benefits. For a single filer, combined income between $25,000 and $34,000 makes up to 50% of your benefits taxable. Above $34,000, up to 85% is taxable.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 86 – Social Security and Tier 1 Railroad Retirement Benefits
Married filing jointly, the 50% bracket starts at $32,000 in combined income and the 85% bracket at $44,000.10Internal Revenue Service. IRS Reminds Taxpayers Their Social Security Benefits May Be Taxable These thresholds have never been adjusted for inflation since they were set in 1983 and 1993, so more beneficiaries hit the 85% tier every year.11Social Security Administration. Income Taxes on Social Security Benefits A full-time salary will almost certainly land you in the 85% bracket. That doesn’t mean 85% of your benefits vanish. It means 85% of the benefit amount gets added to your taxable income and taxed at your normal rate.
Roughly eight states also tax Social Security to some degree, often with age or income exemptions of their own. If you live in one, factor it in.
Voluntary Tax Withholding
Social Security doesn’t withhold federal tax from your monthly check by default. To avoid a large April bill, you can file IRS Form W-4V and request withholding at 7%, 10%, 12%, or 22% of each payment.12Internal Revenue Service. Form W-4V Voluntary Withholding Request You can also set it up or change it directly with SSA at ssa.gov or by calling 1-800-772-1213. Those four percentages are the only options. If you need a different amount, make estimated quarterly payments to the IRS instead.
The Medicare Trap That Catches HSA Savers
Claiming Social Security at or after 65 automatically enrolls you in Medicare Part A.13Social Security Administration. When to Sign Up for Medicare Part A is premium-free for most people, so the enrollment itself is harmless. The catch is that Medicare enrollment of any kind ends your eligibility to contribute to a Health Savings Account.14Internal Revenue Service. Publication 969 – Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans If you’ve been funding an HSA through your employer’s high-deductible plan, that strategy stops the moment your Medicare coverage begins, and any contributions after that count as excess and carry tax penalties.
Medicare Part B is a separate decision. If you have group health coverage through your current employer and the company has 20 or more employees, that plan stays primary, and you can delay Part B without penalty.15Medicare.gov. Working Past 65 Once you leave the job or lose the coverage, you get an eight-month Special Enrollment Period to sign up. Miss that window, or work for an employer with fewer than 20 employees, and you’ll pay a late enrollment penalty: an extra 10% added to your Part B premium for every full year you were eligible but didn’t enroll.16Medicare.gov. Avoid Late Enrollment Penalties That surcharge lasts as long as you have Part B, which for most people means the rest of your life.
You Still Pay Payroll Taxes on Your Wages
Collecting benefits doesn’t exempt you from paying into the system. Your employer withholds Social Security tax at 6.2% on wages up to $184,500 in 2026, and Medicare tax at 1.45% on all wages with no cap.17Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 751 – Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates Wages above $200,000 pick up an additional 0.9% Medicare surtax. There’s no opt-out. The upside is that these payroll taxes generate the earnings credits that feed the annual recalculation, so the money can come back to you in a higher check.
Report Your Earnings to Avoid a Clawback
When you start working full time while receiving benefits, tell Social Security your estimated annual earnings. Use your my Social Security account at ssa.gov or call 1-800-772-1213. Reporting upfront lets the agency spread any withholding evenly across your monthly checks instead of cutting off payments abruptly mid-year when it catches up with your earnings.
Skip this step and the agency will eventually catch the discrepancy when W-2 data flows in from the IRS. Then you owe back the excess benefits, and the default recovery method is withholding 50% of your monthly benefit until the overpayment is repaid.18Social Security Administration. Resolve an Overpayment If you’re no longer receiving benefits, the agency can intercept your tax refund or garnish wages. A five-minute call to report your estimated earnings avoids all of it.