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Reading Railroad Retirement Benefit Statements: Forms RRB-1099 and RRB-1042S: Social Security Benefit Taxes (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Reading Railroad Retirement Benefit Statements: Forms RRB-1099 and RRB-1042S” within social security benefit taxes. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 915 (2025), Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

This appendix explains items shown on Forms SSA-1099 and RRB-1099. Forms SSA-1042S and RRB-1042S, for nonresident aliens, contain the same items plus a few additional ones. These are also explained.

Reading Railroad Retirement Benefit Statements: Forms RRB-1099 and RRB-1042S

Form RRB-1099

Form RRB-1099, Payments by the Railroad Retirement Board 2025

Form RRB-1099 Payments by the Railroad Retirement Board 2025

Form RRB-1099 Payments by the Railroad Retirement Board 2025

Summary: This example shows a blank Form RRB-1099 (2024) as described in the text.

This section explains the items shown on Form RRB-1099. Form RRB-1099 is issued to citizens and residents of the United States. If you received, repaid, or had tax withheld from the SSEB portion of tier 1 railroad retirement benefits or special guaranty benefits during 2025, you will receive Form RRB-1099.

If you received, repaid, or had tax withheld from any NSSEB portion of tier 1 benefits, tier 2 benefits, vested dual benefits, or supplemental annuity benefits during 2025, you will receive Form RRB-1099-R, Annuities or Pensions by the Railroad Retirement Board. For more information concerning Form RRB-1099-R, see Pub. 575.

Tip:

Each beneficiary will receive their own Form RRB-1099. If you receive benefits on more than one railroad retirement record, you may get more than one Form RRB-1099. To help ensure that you get your form timely, make sure the RRB always has your current mailing address.

Box 1—Claim Number and Payee Code

Your RRB claim number is a six or nine digit number preceded by an alphabetical prefix and is the number under which the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits or special guaranty benefits was paid. Your payee code is the number following your claim number and is used by the RRB to identify you under your claim number. In all your contacts with the RRB, be sure to use the claim number and payee code shown in this box.

Box 2—Recipient’s Identification Number

This is the U.S. social security number (SSN), individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN), or employer identification number (EIN), if known, for the person or estate listed as the recipient.

Box 3—Gross Social Security Equivalent Benefit Portion of Tier 1 Paid in 2025

The figure shown in this box is the gross SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits or special guaranty benefits paid to you in 2025. It is the amount before any deductions were made for:

Federal income tax withholding;
Medicare premiums;
Legal Process Garnishment payments;
Overall minimum assignment payments;
Recovery of an overpayment, including recovery of Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act benefits received while awaiting payment of your railroad retirement annuity; and
Workers’ compensation offset (explained in the description of box 6, later).

The figure in box 3 is the amount after any deductions were made for:

Social security benefits,
Age reduction,
Public service pensions or public disability benefits,
Dual railroad retirement entitlement under another RRB claim number,
Work deductions,
Actuarial adjustment,
Annuity waiver, and
Legal Process Partition payments.

Caution:

Social security benefits paid through the RRB aren’t reported on Form RRB-1099 or RRB-1042S. They are reported on Form SSA-1099 or SSA-1042S issued by the SSA.

Example 1.

For the period January through March 2025, you received $300 ($100 × 3 months) Railroad Unemployment Insurance. You were eligible for the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits of $509 a month beginning January 1, 2025, but you didn’t receive your first payment until April 2025. The payment you received in April was for the first 3 months of 2025. However, because you received unemployment benefits during the same period, $300 was deducted from your initial benefit payment. Instead of receiving $1,527 ($509 × 3 months), you received $1,227 ($1,527 − $300). For the months of April through November, you were paid your regular monthly SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits of $509. Box 3 of your Form RRB-1099 will show $5,599 ($509 × 11 months) as the gross SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits paid to you in 2025, even though you didn’t actually receive that amount. This is because box 3 shows the gross amount of your benefits before any reductions were made for the unemployment benefits paid to you.

Example 2.

You received tier 1 benefits of $600 a month for the months of January through June 2025. Your $600 monthly tier 1 benefits consist of an SSEB portion of $250 and an NSSEB portion of $350. Beginning in July 2025, you became entitled to Medicare, and $185.00 a month was deducted from your benefit checks for Medicare premiums. Therefore, the tier 1 payments you received for the rest of the year were $415.00 ($600 − $185.00) a month. Box 3 of your Form RRB-1099 will show the gross SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits of $3,000 ($250 × 12 months) because it’s the gross SSEB amount before deductions for your Medicare premiums. Box 11 of your Form RRB-1099 will show your Medicare premiums of $1,111.00 ($185.00 × 6 months) deducted from July through December 2025. The remainder of your tier 1 payments, the NSSEB portion of $4,200 ($350 × 12 months), will be shown on the Form RRB-1099-R that you will receive along with your Form RRB-1099. The $4,200 is the gross NSSEB amount before deductions for your Medicare premiums. (The Medicare Premium Total box shown on your Form RRB-1099-R will be blank because the Medicare total will be shown in box 11 of your Form RRB-1099.) For more information on Form RRB-1099-R, see Pub. 575.

Benefits paid for earlier years.

The figure in box 3 includes any lump-sum benefit payment you received in 2025 that is for an earlier year after 1983. If you received a payment for an earlier year, it will be shown in box 7, 8, or 9 (described later). See Lump-Sum Election, earlier, for information on how to treat the payment.

Box 4—Social Security Equivalent Benefit Portion of Tier 1 Repaid to RRB in 2025

The figure shown in this box is the total SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits you repaid to the RRB in 2025. You may have repaid a benefit by returning a payment, making a cash refund, or having an amount withheld from your payments. In addition, an amount may have been withheld from your benefits to recover the SSEB overpayment incurred by someone else who is also receiving benefits under your claim number. Also, an amount may have been withheld from another benefit, such as a social security benefit, to recover an SSEB overpayment you received.

The amount in box 4 also includes any SSEB benefits you repaid in 2025 that were for 2025 or for 1 or more years before 2025. All tier 1 repayments for years before 1986 are treated entirely as SSEB benefits.

Example 1.

You returned to work for your last railroad employer for the months of June through August 2025. The SSEB portion of your tier 1 benefits was $450 for each of those months. Because you aren’t allowed to receive benefits for any month you returned to railroad service, you have to make a repayment to the RRB. You returned the benefit payment for June through August 2025. Box 4 of your Form RRB-1099 will show $1,350 ($450 × 3 months) as the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits you repaid to the RRB.

Example 2.

From January through April 2025, you were overpaid $800 in the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits. From May through August 2025, $200 a month was withheld from your benefit payment to fully recover the $800 overpayment. Box 4 of your Form RRB-1099 will show $800 ($200 × 4 months) as the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits you repaid to the RRB.

Example 3.

As a retired railroad employee, you have been receiving a railroad retirement annuity, including an SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits, since 2024. You also became entitled to, and received from the SSA, a social security benefit of $300 a month beginning May 1, 2025. The SSA later authorized the RRB to pay that benefit. In August 2025, the RRB began paying your social security benefit to you and reduced the SSEB portion of your monthly tier 1 benefit by $300. Social security benefits of $900 ($300 × 3 months) covering the period May through July 2025 were kept by the RRB to offset your $900 SSEB overpayment for that same period. Box 4 of your Form RRB-1099 will show $900 as the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits you repaid to the RRB.

Note: SSA will provide Form SSA-1099, which will include the $900 in benefits paid by SSA for the months of May through July 2025.

Box 5—Net Social Security Equivalent Benefit Portion of Tier 1 Paid in 2025

The figure shown in this box is the net amount of the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits paid to you in 2025. It is the result of subtracting the amount in box 4 from the amount in box 3. If you received more than one Form RRB-1099 for 2025, you should add the amounts in box 5 of all Forms RRB-1099 to determine your net amount of SSEB payments for 2025. Use this amount to determine if any of your benefits are taxable. See Are Any of Your Benefits Taxable, earlier.

If parentheses are around the figure in box 5, it means that the figure in box 4 is larger than the figure in box 3. This is a negative figure and means you repaid more money than you received in 2025. For more information, see Repayments More Than Gross Benefits, earlier.

Box 6—Workers’ Compensation Offset in 2025

The figure shown in this box is the amount you received in workers’ compensation benefits during the year that was used to offset the full amount of your tier 1 payments. The SSEB portions of your tier 1 benefits shown in boxes 3 and 5 include amounts by which your SSEB payments were reduced for workers’ compensation benefits. Your workers’ compensation amount is shown in this box separately only for your information. If you didn’t receive workers’ compensation benefits, box 6 is blank.

Example.

For 2025, your tier 1 benefit of $450 a month is reduced to $400 because of a $50-a-month workers’ compensation offset. Boxes 3 and 5 of your Form RRB-1099 will show $5,400 ($450 × 12 months) as the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits paid to you by the RRB. The $5,400 is the amount before any deductions were made for the workers’ compensation offset. Box 4 will show zero because you didn’t make any repayments during the year. Box 6 of your form will show $600 ($50 workers’ compensation × 12 months). In figuring if any of your benefits are taxable, you must use $5,400 (box 5) as the amount of the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits paid to you.

Boxes 7 and 8—Social Security Equivalent Benefit Portion of Tier 1 Paid for 2024 or 2023

The figure shown in each applicable box is the amount of SSEB benefits paid to you in 2025 that was for 2024 or 2023. This amount is included in the amount shown in box 3.

Box 9—Social Security Equivalent Benefit Portion of Tier 1 Paid for Years Prior to 2023

The figure shown in this box is the amount of SSEB benefits paid to you in 2025 that was for 2022 and earlier years after 1983. This amount is included in the amount shown in box 3. Any tier 1 benefit paid for a period before 1986 is treated as SSEB.

Box 10—Federal Income Tax Withheld

The figure shown in this box is the total amount of U.S. federal income tax withheld on your 2025 tier 1 SSEB or special guaranty benefit payments. This total is based on the amount of SSEB tax withholding requested on IRS Form W-4V. Include this amount on your income tax return as tax withheld.

Box 11—Medicare Premium Total

This is only for informational purposes and the RRB does not report this amount to the IRS. This is the total amount of Part B, Part C, and/or Part D Medicare premiums deducted from your railroad retirement annuity payments in 2025. The Medicare total is normally shown on Form RRB-1099. However, if Form RRB-1099 is not required for your 2025 taxes, then this total will be shown on Form RRB-1099-R.

Form RRB-1042S for nonresident taxpayers

Form RRB-1042S, Payments by the Railroad Retirement Board 2025 (Nonresident Aliens)

Form RRB-1042S Payments by the Railroad Retirement Board 2025

Form RRB-1042S Payments by the Railroad Retirement Board 2025

Summary: This example shows a blank Form RRB-1042S (2024) as described in the text.

This form is for nonresident aliens.

Note:

If your country of legal residence changed or your tax withholding rate changed during the year, you may receive more than one Form RRB-1042S. To determine your total amounts for the year, you should add the amounts shown on all Forms RRB-1042S you received for that year.

Box 1—Income Code

The figure shown in this box indicates the amounts are either SSEB payments or pension payments.

Box 5—Employee Contributions

This is the amount of taxes withheld from your railroad employment earnings that exceeds the amount of taxes that would have been withheld had the earnings been covered under the social security system. The amount shown is your total employee contribution amount attributable to a railroad account number and must be shared by all annuitants eligible to use it. It is the latest amount reported for 2025 and may have increased or decreased from a previous Form RRB-1042S. A change in the amount may affect the nontaxable portion of your contributory amounts paid. You may need to refigure the nontaxable amount and/or file an original or amended income tax return(s) using the amount reported on this form. If this box is blank, it means that your contributory amount paid and total gross paid are fully taxable. For more information, see Pub. 575; and Pub. 939, General Rule for Pensions and Annuities.

Box 6—Claim Number and Payee Code

Box 7—Recipient’s U.S. Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)

This is the U.S. social security number (SSN), individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN), or employer identification number (EIN), if known, for the person or estate listed as the recipient.

Box 10—Gross Benefit Paid in 2025

The figure shown in this box is the total amount of benefits paid to you in 2025. It includes any benefits paid in 2025 that were for prior years. It is the amount before any deductions were made for:

Federal income tax withholding;
Medicare premiums;
Legal Process Garnishment payments;
Overall minimum assignment payments;
Recovery of an overpayment, including recovery of Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act benefits received while awaiting payment of your railroad retirement annuity; and
Workers’ compensation offset.

The figure in box 10 is the amount after any deductions were made for:

Social security benefits,
Age reduction,
Public service pensions or public disability benefits,
Dual railroad retirement entitlement under another RRB claim number,
Work deductions,
Actuarial adjustment,
Annuity waiver, and
Legal Process Partition payments.

Caution:

Social security benefits paid through the RRB aren’t reported on Form RRB-1099 or RRB-1042S. They are reported on Form SSA-1099 or SSA-1042S issued by the SSA.

Example 1.

For the period January through March 2025, you received $300 ($100 × 3 months) Railroad Unemployment Insurance. You were eligible for the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits of $509 a month beginning January 1, 2025, but you didn’t receive your first payment until April 2025. The payment you received in April was for the first 3 months of 2025. However, because you received unemployment benefits during the same period, $300 was deducted from your initial benefit payment. Instead of receiving $1,527 ($509 × 3 months), you received $1,227 ($1,527 − $300). For the months of April through November, you were paid your regular monthly SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits of $509. Box 10 of your Form RRB-1042S will show $5,599 ($509 × 11 months) as the gross SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits paid to you in 2025, even though you didn’t actually receive that amount. This is because box 10 shows the gross amount of your benefits before any reductions were made for the unemployment benefits paid to you.

Example 2.

You received tier 1 benefits of $600 a month for the months of January through June 2025. Your $600 monthly tier 1 benefits consist of an SSEB portion of $250 and an NSSEB portion of $350. Beginning in July 2025, you became entitled to Medicare, and $185.00 a month was deducted from your benefit checks for Medicare premiums. Therefore, the tier 1 payments you received for the rest of the year were $415.00 ($600 − $185.00) a month. Box 10 of your Form RRB-1042S will show the gross SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits of $3,000 ($250 × 12 months) because it’s the gross SSEB amount before deductions for your Medicare premiums. Box 17 of your Form RRB-1042S will show your Medicare premiums of $1,110.00 ($185.00 × 6 months) deducted from July through December 2025. The remainder of your tier 1 payments, the NSSEB portion of $4,200 ($350 × 12 months), will be shown on the Form RRB-1099-R that you will receive along with your Form RRB-1042S. The $4,200 is the gross NSSEB amount before deductions for your Medicare premiums. (The Medicare Premium Total box shown on your Form RRB-1099-R will be blank because the Medicare total will be shown in box 17 of your Form RRB-1042S.) For more information on Form RRB-1042S, see Pub. 575.

Benefits paid for earlier years.

The figure in box 10 includes any lump-sum benefit payment you received in 2025 that is for an earlier year after 1983. See Lump-Sum Election, earlier, for information on how to treat the payment.

Box 11—Benefit Repaid to RRB in 2025

The figure shown in this box is the total amount of benefits you repaid to the RRB in 2025, including any benefits you repaid in 2025 for prior years. You may have repaid a benefit by returning a payment, by making a cash refund, or by having an amount withheld from your annuity for overpayment recovery purposes. In addition, an amount may have been withheld from your benefits to recover an overpayment incurred by someone else who is also receiving benefits under your claim number.

The amount in box 11 also includes any SSEB benefits you repaid in 2025 that were for 2025 or for 1 or more years before 2025. All tier 1 repayments for years before 1986 are treated entirely as SSEB benefits.

Example 1.

You returned to work for your last railroad employer for the months of June through August 2025. The SSEB portion of your tier 1 benefits was $450 for each of those months. Because you aren’t allowed to receive benefits for any month you returned to railroad service, you have to make a repayment to the RRB. You returned the benefit payment for June through August 2025. Box 11 of your Form RRB-1042S will show $1,350 ($450 × 3 months) as the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits you repaid to the RRB.

Example 2.

From January through April 2025, you were overpaid $800 in the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits. From May through August 2025, $200 a month was withheld from your benefit payment to fully recover the $800 overpayment. Box 11 of your Form RRB-1042S will show $800 ($200 × 4 months) as the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits you repaid to the RRB.

Example 3.

As a retired railroad employee, you have been receiving a railroad retirement annuity, including an SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits, since 2024. You also became entitled to, and received from the SSA, a social security benefit of $300 a month beginning May 1, 2025. The SSA later authorized the RRB to pay that benefit. In August 2025, the RRB began paying your social security benefit to you and reduced the SSEB portion of your monthly tier 1 benefit by $300. Social security benefits of $900 ($300 × 3 months) covering the period May through July 2025 were kept by the RRB to offset your $900 SSEB overpayment for that same period. Box 11 of your Form RRB-1042S will show $900 as the SSEB portion of tier 1 benefits you repaid to the RRB.

Note: The SSA will provide Form SSA-1099, which will include the $900 in benefits paid by SSA for the months of May through July 2025.

Box 12—Net Benefit Paid in 2025

The figure shown in this box is the net amount of benefits paid to you in 2025. It is the result of subtracting the amount in box 11 from the amount in box 10. If you received more than one Form RRB-1042S for 2025, you should add the amounts in box 12 of all Forms RRB-1042S to determine your net amount of payments for 2025. Use this amount to determine if any of your benefits are taxable. See Are Any of Your Benefits Taxable, earlier.

If parentheses are around the figure in box 12, it means that the figure in box 11 is larger than the figure in box 10. This is a negative figure and means you repaid more money than you received in 2025. For more information, see Repayments More Than Gross Benefits, earlier.

Box 13—Federal Tax Withheld

The figure shown in this box is the total amount of U.S. federal income tax withheld from your benefits in 2025 while you were a known or assumed resident for tax purposes of the country shown in box 14. If no taxes were withheld, -0- will be shown in this box. If you received more than one Form RRB-1042S for 2025, add the amounts in box 13 of all Forms RRB-1042S to determine your total amount of U.S. federal income tax withheld from SSEB payments for 2025. Tax is withheld for any month in which you were a nonresident alien (unless you claimed exemption under a tax treaty).

Box 14—Country

The country where you maintain your legal residence is shown in this box. If you maintained legal residence in more than one country during the year, you will receive a separate Form RRB-1042S for each country of legal residence during the year.

Box 15—Tax Rate

The figure shown in this box is the rate at which U.S. federal income tax was withheld from the benefits shown on this Form RRB-1042S. If tax was withheld at more than one rate during the year, you will receive a separate Form RRB-1042S for each rate change during the year. The tax rate for most nonresident aliens is 30%. The figure “0%” or “15%” may appear in this box if you claimed a tax treaty exemption by filing Form RRB-1001 with the RRB. For more information, see Nonresident aliens, earlier, under Are Any of Your Benefits Taxable.

Box 16—Exemption Code

If a figure is shown in this box, it indicates a reduction in the applicable nonresident alien tax rate due to a treaty exemption.

Box 17—Medicare Premium Total

This is the total amount of Part B, Part C, and/or Part D Medicare premiums deducted from your railroad retirement annuity payments shown on your Form RRB-1042S.

See Pub. 519 for more information on nonresident aliens.

Tip:

You should contact your nearest RRB field office (if you reside in the United States) or U.S. consulate/embassy (if you reside outside of the United States) for assistance with your RRB tax statement inquiries. If you are in the United States or Canada, you can call the RRB toll free at 877-772-5772. You can also go to the RRB website at RRB.gov. If you have any questions about how to figure your taxable payments or what amounts to show on your income tax return, contact the IRS.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

Publication 915 (2025), Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits — Form RRB-1099 — Internal Revenue Service; 2025 edition.
Publication 915 (2025), Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits — Form RRB-1042S for nonresident taxpayers — Internal Revenue Service; 2025 edition.

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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