Anyone receive employer disability & SSDI together?

At the beginning of the year, I got a payment from my employer based disability policy. There was a one-year limit on mental health. Some of the 12 months I received benefits, it was not much because I was continuing to try to work, and those earnings, and PTO, reduced the benefit amount.

I also started receiving SSDI benefits early in the year.

I do not think the SSDI is taxable, but I'm at a loss of figuring out if the employer plan payment changes whether or not the SSDI is taxable?

It was not income from a job, and was made in two or three payments, all in the first couple months of the year.

Another factor is that most of the benefits they paid from the employer policy, were retroactive to lost wages the previous year (2016). But I received the amount in early 2017.

I'm reading that if half of your ssdi, plus other income, is above 34,000, then 85% of ssdi is taxable. If it's 25,000, then it's 50%. Below 25,000, then zero. I do not know exactly but I think I may be right at the the border of the 25,000. I obviously haven't had taxes withheld from the ssdi, so this may end up being a large amount.

Does anyone have experience with this?

I can't answer the detailed financial questions you ask. My husband handles a lot of that. What I can say is that I was, personally, not able to receive/keep pay from the private long-term disability through my old employer for months I received SSDI. I was terminated from my old job before receiving SSDI, though my private long-term disability continued for a while. The private long-term disability did have an end date (because it was disability for mental illness), which luckily was after I received my first SSDI payments. But as I said, I couldn't receive both SSDI and private disability for the same months. In the end, I had to pay back the private disability insurance company for the months I received SSDI for. That was kind of rough because my private long-term disability monthly payments were higher than my SSDI payments. Boo hiss!

To my knowledge I do pay taxes on my SSDI, but not that much. I do not, personally, have any additional source of income.

As far as the SSDI goes if you flip the IRS thing (SSA-1099) over there is a worksheet to help you see if it is taxable. Actually I think it will help you with your entire question. Basically you take your SSDI amount, divide it in 2, add any taxable income, add any tax-exempt interest and total. Then there are options listed and you figure out what you fit into.

I seem to remember that employer related disability depends on whether you paid for the plan or the employer did. But that was a long time ago and I don't remember the details beyond that.

Good luck. I know how hard it can be. My federal student loans were forgiven my first year on disability and trying to figure out taxes that year was ridiculous.

^^ This.

My understanding about employer pain STD and/or long-term benefits, and whether or not these benefits are taxable depends upon whether the employer or the employee paid the premiums for the coverage. If the employee paid 100% of the premiums for STD/LTD coverage, the STD/LTD income is not taxable.

Yet, please consult the IRS to be 100% positive.

Best wishes,

WC