Faculty members publish article on annuity value

Dr. Ellen Best, department head and associate professor of accounting at the University of North Georgia (UNG) and Dr. Anne Duke, UNG associate professor of accounting,  co-authored “Social Security: Calculating the future value of an annuity,” which ran in the Aug. 26 issue of "Tax Notes Federal."

Best credited Duke with the original idea and took a supporting role in elaborating on some of the analysis and expanding upon her initial research.

“This is the second article we have published together in “Tax Notes,” and we picked this publication because it is a very practice-based publication with a wide readership,” Best said. “Every time we have published there, we have received comments back from readers. Thus, we view it as a pretty impactful journal.”

Best said that being included in the periodical means their work “is adding value to the professional tax community, and being on the cover means that we picked a topic that would be of interest to many readers of that publication.”

The article was written to help readers answer two questions: exactly how to calculate the monthly amount of a taxpayer’s individual Social Security, and second, it examines whether it is better to begin collecting Social Security early (age 62) or later (age 65, 67, or 70), Duke said.

"Most people understand that, in most cases, if you start collecting Social Security at a younger age (like 62), you get a lower amount per month than if you wait until you are older (like 70)," Duke said. "However, if you start collecting Social Security when you are younger, you collect it for a longer time period. If you start collecting it when you are older, you collect for a shorter period of time."

Duke said the paper answers the question of which is a better choice by calculating and comparing the future value of saving and investing all funds collected from Social Security in different scenarios for a hypothetical taxpayer.