I have a client who has been married for 30+ years and they worked as self-employed realtors for many of those years. Instead of splitting the income between 2 schedule C's so they would share the SS benefits, they were all in his wife's name. Now they are retirement age and she is receiving the social security payments. It wouldn't be so bad except she is also a retired teacher, so her SS benefits are being discounted because she's receiving teacher's retirement benefits.
So they are going to start splitting up their Schedule C this year, but they were wondering if they could go back and amend their previous tax returns to change their SS benefits. If so, how far back could they do this?
Anybody have an experience with this or opinions about this?
Thanks, Ky