Is it better to pay taxes?

My wife and I are in our late 50's.  She has earned near zero income for a very long time. (30+ years)

She now helps my aging parents with caregiving.   They give her financial gifts.  That means she owes no taxes on that money.

However, it also means she gets a zero credit toward her SS account toward earned income, which will reduce her long term benefits.

Since we are nearing the time when the long term benefits will matter, is it better for her to claim that money as income for caregiving services rendered, call it a small business, and go ahead and pay the taxes?  This would enable her to claim it as income, credit her SS account, and affect both her long term benefits, and her eligibility baseline for Medicare (I think).  She could also claim tax deduction s for the business expenses (mileage, trips to pickup supplies, cleaning and healthcare items, etc)

Thoughts?

Go to the SS web page and read up on how SS benefits are calculated. It's lifetime, but so much on the last part before you start to claim, etc.  A small job right now, even at $10/hr, would help her SS benefits a lot.

Her spousal benefits through your SS are likely to be larger than what she would get with those last few quarters to earn her own. As long as she thinks she's going to be married to you for the duration I wouldn't bother. And I speak from the point of the guy who is a half dozen quarters away from my own SS as well. 

My understanding (keep in mind I'm the immigrant) is that my wife will get an amount equal to one-half of my Social Security benefit, and she has never earned any American income. I assume your wife would ,too.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

Her spousal benefits through your SS are likely to be larger than what she would get with those last few quarters to earn her own. As long as she thinks she's going to be married to you for the duration I wouldn't bother. And I speak from the point of the guy who is a half dozen quarters away from my own SS as well. 

This, sort of. Both my parents worked their entire lives, to a point. 

When my dad became permanently disabled in 2000 (age 43 for him) something changed but they kept taking federal taxes if I remember right. But my mom continued working until 2015, at 61.5 years of age.

She gets more from my dad's widows benefits from social security than she would get on her own. 

There's also the caveats of being an official or registered caregiver/health worker that would vary state to state. That could create an expensive headache to get sorted out and still not be worth it for her versus what you've earned lifetime. 

In reply to RevRico :

I don't think "official" caregiver certification matters. She's not functioning outside of legal bounds. It's simply whether we call the money a gift, or income. 

I've done zero research on SS calculations, but is it possible to just invest all the money and come out equal to, or ahead of what she'd get in SS minus taxes paid?