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Those feds like me who collect a federal annuity AND SS most certainly DO pay federal income taxes on the SS portion!

The current standard deduction is just under $15,000 for single filers so anyone "living on SS" (alone) with some amount higher than that and not able to reduce their gross from other deductions, would have taxable SS. So there would be a low income threshold that would have someone not needing to pay income tax.

When I started collecting SS, I completed a W-4V to withhold federal income tax from my SS check so I wouldn't get sticker shock come tax time.

In fact, with respect to the federal annuity, employees in the original CSRS or CSRS-Offset system (the latter which I am on, and the newer system FERS relies on SS and a Thrift Savings Plan), we paid income taxes during our working years and end up double-taxed (the annuity withholding % which was NOT deferred).

Originally at retirement under the older system, they didn't levy federal income tax on the annuity for about the first 3 years of disbursements to cover what was already taxed, after which the full annuity amount was fully taxable. But that whole system was changed, so they have this convoluted tax calculation to slightly reduce the "taxable" amount of the monthly annuity, to spread out what was already taxed, over a number of years, to make up for the tax already paid.