Obtaining Your Annual Social Security Statement

One of the best ways to show the history of your income is to obtain an annual Social Security Statement from the Social Security Administration. Many of you will recall that we received this statement every year in the main.

It is a simple way to show the Court your level of income over your entire period of employment. It can be particularly effective for the non-employed spouse to show how the drop or elimination of income coincided with the ‘non-breadwinner’ spouse remaining home to raise the children of the marriage. Also, it can be helpful for the ‘breadwinner’ spouse to show unusual changes in the level of income (ex: a one-time bonus which skews a wage earners income history).

While the SSA discontinued sending out the annual income statements, the information is still available from the SSA website at https://www.ssa.gov/mystatement/. if you are thinking about obtaining a divorce, or need proof of your income for any other reason, this is a simple way to confirm your income even when you do not have previous tax returns at your fingertips.