Q. What does Social Security consider substantial earnings? It says if you have more than 30 years of substantial earnings, the windfall elimination doesn’t apply. I have 32 years of taxed Social Security earnings and 37 years of taxed Medicare earnings, but I am not sure what substantial is.
A. There’s a table for that. Compare your SS taxed earnings each year to the table on page 2 of the notice at https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf.
