🧾 FICA Tax Calculator

FICA is the payroll tax funding Social Security and Medicare, split between you and your employer. For 2026 the Social Security wage base is $184,500, taxed at 6.2 percent; Medicare takes 1.45 percent of all wages, plus an extra 0.9 percent on earnings above $200,000 single or $250,000 joint. Your employer matches the base amounts, doubling the government's take without touching your paycheck.

How to Use This Calculator

The Formula

The wage base rises most years with national wage growth, so rerun this annually. Self-employed workers pay both halves as SECA tax, 15.3 percent, with an above-the-line deduction for half. Estimate total take-home with our paycheck calculator.

Worked Example

On a $100,000 salary filing single for 2026: Social Security = $100,000 × 6.2% = $6,200 (under the $184,500 base, so the full salary counts); Medicare = $100,000 × 1.45% = $1,450; the extra 0.9% does not apply. Total employee FICA = $7,650, or 7.65 percent of pay. The employer matches another $7,650, so the government collects $15,300 on this salary while the worker sees half.

Tips for Payroll Planning

High earners should note the Social Security cutoff: once year-to-date wages pass $184,500, the 6.2 percent stops and late-year paychecks jump. The extra 0.9 percent Medicare has no employer match and no wage-base cap, so it runs all year above the threshold. Bonus and stock-compensation timing can push you across thresholds; spreading equity vesting across tax years sometimes saves real money. And remember FICA is separate from income tax withholding, which follows entirely different brackets.

Common Mistakes

Assuming the 7.65 percent applies at all incomes misses both the wage-base cap (which lowers the rate for high earners) and the extra 0.9 percent (which raises it). Forgetting the employer match understates total labor taxation by half. Self-employed filers who budget only the employee half face an ugly April surprise at 15.3 percent. And confusing the filing-status threshold: the $200k/$250k test uses your tax return status, and employers withhold the extra 0.9 percent above $200k regardless of status.

Will Social Security Be There?

The trustees project the combined trust funds deplete reserves in the mid-2030s, after which payroll taxes cover roughly 80 percent of scheduled benefits absent reform. That means "nothing" is not the risk; a 20 percent haircut is. Younger workers should treat projected benefits as a floor with downside, not a promise, and save as if the haircut happens. The FICA you pay today funds current retirees; your benefits depend on tomorrow's workers and Congress.

Spousal and survivor benefits multiply FICA value beyond the worker own record. A non-working spouse can claim up to 50 percent of the worker benefit, and survivors receive up to 100 percent, which makes the household return on FICA taxes considerably better than the individual math suggests. Divorced spouses married ten-plus years retain claims too. The system insures families, not just earners.

FICA for the Self-Employed

Self-employed workers pay both halves: 15.3 percent SECA tax on net earnings up to the $184,500 wage base (12.4 percent Social Security plus 2.9 percent Medicare), then 2.9 percent Medicare beyond it, plus the 0.9 percent extra above $200k/$250k. On $100,000 of net profit, that is $15,300 before income tax even enters the picture.

The balm is the above-the-line deduction for half the SECA tax, which slightly softens the income-tax blow. S-corporation owners can split income into salary (FICA applies) and distributions (it does not), but the salary must be reasonable or the IRS recharacterizes it. There is no free lunch, only optimized ones.

Quarterly estimated payments must cover SECA too, and underpayment penalties apply to the combined bill. New freelancers routinely budget for income tax and forget the 15.3 percent, discovering the gap in April. Price your services with both halves in mind from day one.

The Wage Base Over Time

The Social Security wage base was $3,000 in 1937 and $184,500 in 2026, climbing with national average wages. It roughly doubles every 20 to 25 years, which means today's young workers will likely see a $300,000-plus base mid-career. Planning as if the cap were fixed understates lifetime payroll taxes substantially.

Reform proposals periodically target the base: eliminating it entirely, or adding a "donut hole" tax above $400,000. Either change would raise high earners' lifetime FICA markedly. The base's trajectory is the most politically vulnerable part of the system precisely because raising it taxes people who vote at high rates.

For personal planning, project the base growing ~3.5 percent yearly and check when your earnings cross it. Crossing earlier each career stage is normal with raises; the late-year paycheck bump is a small joy worth anticipating. The base is a moving finish line, and it moves away from you.

Estimates for planning only, not financial advice.