VA Disability
I've received a VA Disability award. Is there anythiing in the Federal 1040 where this award needs to be included as income, i. e. calculating taxable social security? Or where income from all sources is required? I think the answer is no, but I'd like an expert's answer.
Answers
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In Virginia, disability income can have an individual income tax subtraction for up to $20,000 within the VA state return. Disability benefits from VA are not federally taxable, and so likely wouldn't need to be included in your federal return.
If you had paid disability leave or sick pay as part of a job you worked, this might be included in your W-2, and this would be considered taxable wages.
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Do you have to file income taxes for federal & CA state if you are retired & have social security, VA pension, & Korean VA pension? IF it was not filed for a number of years, does it need to be filed & mailed in?
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Often, social security income is nontaxable, but past a certain point it does become taxable. For single filers in 2024, if your combined income (including other income besides SS) is between $25k and $34k, up to 50% of your SS benefits could be taxable. For those filing jointly in 2024, if both people's combined income is between $32k and $44k, up to 50% of the SS benefits could be taxable. For both of those, if you go past the upper limit, up to 85% of benefits could be taxable.
Any amount of Social Security benefits taxed federally can be subtracted on the Virginia return, and VA will not tax any SS benefits.
For California, a similar subtraction of federally taxed SS benefits is available.
As far as Korean veterans, VA does offer pensions among other benefits. Like SS benefits, VA won't tax that income. Anything disability related will be tax free. Check this out for further reading:
https://www.benefits.va.gov/persona/veteran-korea.asp
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The requirement to file a tax return will depend on the income that you received during the year. The IRS has a really great tool that will help you determine if you are required to file a return. Here is a link to that tool:
In most situations, you'll need to mail prior year tax returns. However, if you have an Identity Protection PIN, you may be able to e-file the two most recent prior year returns.
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I want to let you know that the VA pension & VA Korean pension are both Veteran Admin pensions. They are not from Virginia state. So, what I see is that none of these are taxable. Is that correct?
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Sorry for the confusion and thanks for the clarification. And yes, VA pension benefits, including those for Korean War veterans, are generally not taxable. These benefits are designed to provide financial support to eligible veterans and their families and are considered tax-free income.
