Gripe of the Week: Social Security Benefit Taxation

Someone explain this to me: Despite all of the complexities of the Tax Code, and the loopholes and exceptions written in for the benefit of individuals or groups with influence in Congress, isn't there one underlying principle of fairness that is inviolate - namely the notion that a person only pays income taxes ONCE on the elements of his 'income' - as they are defined??

As an example, if you deduct your IRA contribution from taxable income during the year the contribution is made, then the proceeds out of that IRA (at least to the extent of the non-exempt basis you have in the account) are taxed as and when you repatriate amounts from the account. Likewise, if the particular IRA contribution is NOT deducted from income taxes, then the IRS recognizes that taxes already have been paid on that contribution, and the basis, when and as it is paid out, is exempt from income taxes. Fair and square.

So why is it that all throughout a person's working life, his earnings are made subject to Social Security taxes, and those contributions are made, AFTER income tax is levied on the entire income, only to be taxed again, when the person retires and starts drawing down social security benefits??

Does the SSA not recognize that it is the wage earner's own money he is receiving back, albeit with some pretty hefty implied interest bennies?? Or do the folks at Treasury assert that one's social security contributions are some sort of a levy, like a gasoline tax, going into a black hole, without relevance to the contributions that made possible the SS outlay?? And that the actual social security benefits represent 'new money' payable by will from Treasury, and hence should be taxed, just like any other 'income'??

Forget about the notion that the 'lock box' so much discussed in the 2000 election does not exist. THAT can of worm is a discussion subject at a different juncture of Grumpy's daily diatribes.

This is simply wrong - and I am amazed that AARP and other organizations sucking annual membership contributions out of geezers like me, have not made this one of their primal battle cries. If there is one benefit all of AARP's five million members could share, without gripes, it would be exemption from income taxation of all of their miserable monthly social security checks.

I aim to find out.