Social Security Payroll Tax for 2018
The employee's Social Security payroll tax rate for 2018 (January 1 through December 31, 2018) is 6.2% of the first $128,400 of wages, salaries, etc. An employee's 2018 earnings in excess of $128,400 are not subject to the Social Security tax.
Social Security Payroll Tax for 2019
The employee's Social Security payroll tax rate for 2019 (January 1 through December 31, 2019) is 6.2% of the first $132,900 of wages, salaries, etc. An employee's 2019 earnings in excess of $132,900 are not subject to the Social Security tax.
Social Security Payroll Tax is One Part of the FICA Payroll Tax
The Social Security payroll tax is one of the two components of the FICA payroll tax. The other component is the Medicare tax which applies to every dollar of an employee's earnings. In other words, there is no wage limit or cap for the Medicare tax. In fact, there is also a Medicare surtax that applies to high income employees.
An Employer Must Match its Employees' FICA Taxes
In addition to the employees' Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, the employer is required to match the amounts that were withheld from the employees' paychecks (other than the Medicare surtax).
