II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 358
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to increase the threshold
amounts for inclusion of Social Security benefits in income.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY3, 2025
Mrs. B
LACKBURN(for herself and Mr. MARSHALL) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to increase
the threshold amounts for inclusion of Social Security
benefits in income.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reducing Excessive 4
Taxation and Inefficiencies by Reforming Elder Exemp-5
tions to Support Fairness, Inflation Relief, and Simpler 6
Taxes Act’’ or the ‘‘RETIREES FIRST Act’’. 7
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SEC. 2. INCREASE IN THRESHOLD AMOUNTS FOR INCLU-1
SION OF SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS IN IN-2
COME. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subsection (a) of section 86 of the 4
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as fol-5
lows: 6
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Gross income for the taxable 7
year of any taxpayer described in subsection (b) (notwith-8
standing section 207 of the Social Security Act) includes 9
Social Security benefits in an amount equal to the lesser 10
of— 11
‘‘(1) 85 percent of the Social Security benefits 12
received during the taxable year, or 13
‘‘(2) 85 percent of the excess described in sub-14
section (b)(1).’’. 15
(b) B
ASEAMOUNT.—Subsection (c) of section 86 of 16
such Code is amended to read as follows: 17
‘‘(c) B
ASEAMOUNT.— 18
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of this sec-19
tion, the term ‘base amount’ means— 20
‘‘(A) except as otherwise provided in this 21
subsection, $34,000, 22
‘‘(B) $68,000 in the case of a joint return, 23
and 24
‘‘(C) zero in the case of a taxpayer who— 25
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‘‘(i) is married as of the close of the 1
taxable year (within the meaning of section 2
7703) but does not file a joint return for 3
such year, and 4
‘‘(ii) does not live apart from his 5
spouse at all times during the taxable year. 6
‘‘(2) I
NFLATION ADJUSTMENT .— 7
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of any 8
taxable year beginning after 2025, each of the 9
dollar amounts in paragraph (1) shall be in-10
creased by an amount equal to— 11
‘‘(i) such dollar amount, multiplied by 12
‘‘(ii) the cost-of-living adjustment de-13
termined under section 1(f)(3) for the cal-14
endar year, determined by substituting 15
‘calendar year 2024’ for ‘calendar year 16
2016’ in subparagraph (A)(ii) thereof. 17
‘‘(B) R
OUNDING.—If any amount deter-18
mined under subparagraph (A) is not a multiple 19
of $1,000, such amount shall be rounded to the 20
nearest multiple of $1,000.’’. 21
(c) S
OCIALSECURITYTRUSTFUNDSHELDHARM-22
LESS.—There are hereby appropriated (out of any money 23
in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated) for each fiscal 24
year to each fund under the Social Security Act or the 25
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Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 an amount equal to the 1
reduction in the transfers to such fund for such fiscal year 2
by reason of the amendments made by this section. 3
(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 4
this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 5
December 31, 2025. 6
SEC. 3. REALLOCATING NON-SECURITY DISCRETIONARY 7
APPROPRIATIONS TO SUPPORT RETIREE TAX 8
RELIEF. 9
(a) R
ESCISSION.—Subject to subsection (c), for fiscal 10
year 2027, and each fiscal year thereafter, effective on the 11
day after the date on which appropriations are made avail-12
able through September 30 of the applicable fiscal year 13
for the entire Federal Government, there is rescinded an 14
amount equal to the total cost for such fiscal year, on a 15
pro rata basis, from amounts made available through reg-16
ular appropriation Acts. 17
(b) R
EGULARAPPROPRIATIONACT.—For purposes 18
of this section, the term ‘‘regular appropriation Act’’— 19
(1) means an annual appropriation Act (as de-20
scribed in section 105 of title 1, United States Code) 21
providing new budget authority (as defined in sec-22
tion 3 of the Congressional Budget and Impound-23
ment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 622)) for the 24
programs, projects, and activities under the jurisdic-25
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tion of a subcommittee of the Committee on Appro-1
priations of the Senate; and 2
(2) includes— 3
(A) a title, division, or other subdivision of 4
an Act or resolution that, if it were a separate 5
Act, would be an Act described in paragraph 6
(1); and 7
(B) a resolution or Act, or a title, division, 8
or other subdivision of a resolution or Act, mak-9
ing continuing appropriations for all, or a por-10
tion of, a fiscal year. 11
(c) E
XCLUSION.—Subsection (a) shall not apply with 12
respect to any discretionary appropriations included in the 13
security category (as defined in Section 250(c) of the Bal-14
anced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 15
(2 U.S.C. 900(c))). 16
(d) T
OTALCOST.—For purposes of this section, the 17
term ‘‘total cost’’ means, with respect to a fiscal year, an 18
amount (as determined by the Secretary of the Treasury) 19
equal to the total reduction in the transfers to each fund 20
under the Social Security Act or the Railroad Retirement 21
Act of 1974 for such fiscal year by reason of the amend-22
ments made by section 2(b) (as determined without re-23
spect to any appropriation made pursuant to section 2(c)). 24
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(e) OMB REPORT.—Not later than January 1, 2028, 1
and annually thereafter, the Director of the Office of Man-2
agement and Budget shall publish a report detailing any 3
rescissions made under this section with respect to the 4
most recently completed fiscal year. 5
Æ
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