 Well, so if you're collecting Social Security before your full retirement age and your earnings are above $21,000, they're going to make you pay some of it back to them. But the minute you hit your full retirement age, 66 and 8 months, you could make a million dollars and you won't pay back a nickel. But you continue to pay income taxes on your Social Security. You're just not going to have to pay back what they gave you