2010 OASDI Trustees Report

B. TRUST FUND FINANCIAL OPERATIONS IN 2009

The table below shows the income, expenditures, and assets for the OASI, the DI, and the combined OASDI Trust Funds in calendar year 2009.

 

Table II.B1.—Summary of 2009 Trust Fund Financial Operations

(In billions)

		OASI	DI	OASDI
Assets at the end of 2008		$2,202.9	$215.8	$2,418.7
Total income in 2009		698.2	109.3	807.5
	Net contributions	570.4	96.9	667.3
	Taxation of benefits	19.9	2.0	21.9
	Interest	107.9	10.5	118.3
Total expenditures in 2009		564.3	121.5	685.8
	Benefit payments	557.2	118.3	675.5
	Railroad Retirement financial interchange	3.7	.4	4.1
	Administrative expenses	3.4	2.7	6.2
Net increase in assets in 2009		133.9	-12.2	121.7
Assets at the end of 2009		2,336.8	203.5	2,540.3

Note: Totals do not necessarily equal the sums of rounded components.

In 2009, net contributions accounted for 83 percent of total trust fund income. Net contributions consist of taxes paid by employees, employers, and the self-employed on earnings covered by Social Security. These taxes are paid on covered earnings up to a specified maximum annual amount, which was $106,800 in 2009. The tax rates scheduled under current law for 2009 and later are shown in table II.B2.

 

Table II.B2.—Tax Rates for 2009 and Later

	OASI	DI	OASDI
Tax rate for employees and employers, each (in percent)	5.30	0.90	6.20
Tax rate for self-employed persons (in percent)	10.60	1.80	12.40

Three percent of OASDI Trust Fund income came from subjecting up to 50 percent of Social Security benefits above specified levels to Federal personal income taxation, and 15 percent of OASDI income came from interest earned on investment of OASDI Trust Fund reserves. Trust fund assets are invested in interest-bearing securities of the U.S. Government. In 2009, the combined trust fund assets earned interest at an effective annual rate of 4.9 percent. More than 98 percent of expenditures from the combined OASDI Trust Funds in 2009 were retirement, survivor, and disability benefits totaling $675.5 billion. The financial interchange with the Railroad Retirement program resulted in a net payment of $4.1 billion from the combined OASDI Trust Funds, or about 0.6 percent of total expenditures. The administrative expenses of the Social Security program were $6.2 billion, or about 0.9 percent of total expenditures.

Assets of the trust funds provide a reserve to pay benefits whenever total program cost exceeds income. Trust fund assets increased by $121.7 billion in 2009 because income to the combined funds exceeded expenditures. At the end of 2009, the combined assets of the OASI and the DI Trust Funds were 355 percent of estimated expenditures for 2010, up from an actual level of 353 percent at the end of 2008.