Tax Law Questions

The tax questions that can pop up when you're filling out your annual forms are almost infinite in number and become even more common once you reach or come near reaching the year when you reach midnight on the day before your birthday and turn into a Social Security and Medicare pumpkin.

If you are a regular employee in the United States, you are obliged to pay social security and Medicare taxes in nearly all cases. Your payments of these taxes play a vital part to your coverage under the U.S. Social Security System. Social security coverage affords retirement benefits and medical insurance (Medicare) benefits to persons who meet specific eligibility requirements. Your employer takes away these taxes from each wage payment. Your employer ought to deduct these taxes even though you do not anticipate qualifying for social security or Medicare benefits.

In general, U.S. social security and Medicare taxes apply to payments of wages for services performed as an employee in the United States of America, not considering the nationality or residence of either the employee or the employer. In some instances, these taxes are also applied to wages for services performed outside the United States. Your employer ought to tell you, in any circumstances, if social security and Medicare taxes apply to your wages. You cannot and should not make voluntary social security payments if no taxes are due.

If you work for an employer, 6.2% is withheld from your wages including cash bonuses, and your employer deposits the withheld amount, along with his 6.2% complementary contribution, with the government for the social security programs. If you are self-employed, you are to pay 15.3% of your taxable income into the social security and Medicare programs, up to the first $102,000 of income. You also go on to paying 2.9% of your taxable income into the Medicare program for your earnings even above $102,000. Although the effect on you is far larger for the reason that you pay twice the rate of employees, you can take away one-half of your federal self-employment taxes from your income when paying federal taxes.

Workers are not required to pay Social Security taxes on wages from certain types of work like: wages, cash bonus, etc received by particular state or local government workers taking part in their employers' alternative retirement system, Net yearly earnings from self-employment of less than $400, payments received for service as an election worker, if less than $1,400 annually, payments received for working as a household employee, if less than $1,700 annually, payments earned by college students working under Federal Work Study programs, graduate students receiving stipends while working as teaching assistants, research assistants, or on fellowships, and most postdoctoral researchers.