I cashed in an IRA of $6,500 and had a total income (SS & 2 part time jobs) of $32,64. I am 71 years old. Do I have to pay tax on the IRA?

Yes, you have to pay taxes on an IRA. 71 is the age where you have to cash in ur IRAs because the government wants their money. With my 71 yr old husband he left his IRAs in the bank but set up where he pays taxes over the next few years. Those holding the IRAs sent a 1099. Which is what the bank where ur IRAs are should have done. 1099 means the government knows you cashed in the IRA.

Thanks to all of you who answered. Your wide variety of answers helped me make the right decision to use the formula Carla CB recommended, along with online tax programs who all ended up with the same result. Thank you one and all and VegasLady, sorry your first response was so negative but I understand by your second post why you might say that. I'm sure there are a lot of lazy people who don't take the time to do their homework, but I am now living abroad and don't have the luxury of the AARP & other volunteers that help seniors, plus my own CPA would not appreciate a question from me on the weekend before the deadline, so I didn't have any choice but to try to find the answer here, and I did. This can be a valuable resource and a great help to those of us who have no other way of finding something out.
Thank you all once again.

I'm retired from the IRS and still don't think this is the best place for tax advice, but your suggestions were useful during filing season. The trouble is too many people online only think they know something from hearing it third hand and not from personal experience. Let's face it, half the people can't get the difference between Social Security and SSI, or Medicare and Medicaid.

CarlaCB, Good to know you are professional in how you answer questions that relate to your former profession.

I don't agree with that. We have posters here who have a variety of skills and knowledge from their prior or current professional lives. I'm a tax preparer as well as a pension lawyer in my prior life. I'm happy to answer question within my sphere of knowledge. If I don't know, I don't answer.

This is not the place to ask a routine tax question. Go the H&R Block or similar legit preparer and get your taxes done.

I would trust your online tax program much more than I would random strangers on the internet.

I volunteer for AARP. They are closed now.

as an alternative to a paid tax preparer, you can look to see if there are any local AARP tax sites or VITA (volunteer income tax assistance) sites still open in your location. You can look for this on irs.gov. In my area, you can also call 211 and ask. (I don't know if 211 operates across the country). I volunteered at a VITA site this year and we are done for the season, but last year I worked at a different site that was open until the final day of tax season. These folks have mandatory IRS training and will do your taxes for free.

Vani, it depends upon what type of IRA it is. ROTH = no tax liability. You need a tax preparer to look at this if you aren't comfortable filing on your own.

For a person over 65, the annual income that would allow you not to owe tax is 11950. This assumes you're filing as a single person and that you take the standard deduction (don't itemize).

Social security can be totally excluded or partially excluded, depending on the amount of your other income. Basically, if you take 50% of you SS and add it to your taxable income, you owe taxes if the total is more than 25,000. How much you would owe depends on the breakdown between your SS and your other income.

when you open or deposit into an IRA it isn't taxed during that tax year as income. when you withdraw (after 65) it gets taxed at a lower rate(%) than it would have before you where 65. if I remember correctly