In April, my wife aged 45, died suddenly & unexpectedly. I won't go into the details, but I took her to the ER at 9:00 AM and she coded and died 60 minutes later. We have 2 sons aged 14 & 15.

I've applied for and was approved for survivor benefits for the 2 boys. My question is around taxes. I've discovered the survivor benefits are taxed at the Federal level. Not sure about state just yet. I did not sign up for tax withholding when I applied. To be honest, I didn't know they were taxable when I applied.

The deposits will currently go into a savings account my wife and I setup years ago. I've already notified the bank about her death, so everything is now in my name only.

My question is, who gets the reported income? Obviously my tax bracket is much higher than my non-working boys. If they get the reported income, should I open accounts in their names and have each deposit go into the account for each?

I do have a CPA, but I just thought of this question today. Trying to stay ahead of everything.

https://www.irs.gov/faqs/socia...s/survivors-benefits

If I am guessing you are Navy, you could direct deposit their funds into a NFCU EasyStart Certificate:

https://www.navyfederal.org/ch...gs/certificates.html

Could give them more interest than a simple savings account.

The survivors SS is not reportable on your tax return. Your sons do not have to report or file a return unless they meet the criteria of additional income. The link above explains the reporting.

Neither me nor my wife were in the military.

My wife worked in a Corporate job. Her income was above average and the survivor benefits is based off of her income. The benefit is higher than what I would've guessed.

It does sound like it's their benefit, and not mine, which would make it reported under their SS#, not mine.

First I am sorry for the loss of your wife.
Second I don't know the answer to your question however if I am not mistaken I think we have a member who worked for the social security administration, if so hopefully he sees this and can help.

I am also sorry to hear of your wife's untimely passing. While I don't have anything to add, I will be praying for you all.

Sorry to hear about your loss.
I lost my wife in 2010 she was44 years old .I applied for survivor benefits and was denied because I was a federal retiree. Catch 22.

Fast forward to 2024 Biden had pass a bill changing all that.
In 2025 I received letter from SS that I would be receiving survivors benefit. Yes it was a big hit on income tax with Federal. I did go in SS website and changed my withdrawals to federal according to their tier of withdrawal.
SS is exempt in State withdrawal here in California.