Social Security Tax Calculator
Tax & IncomeThe 6.2% OASDI tax on your wages.
Earnings
Enter your annual wages to estimate the Social Security tax.
Advanced options
Enter your annual wages to estimate the Social Security tax.
Wage base by year
The most any one earner pays the 6.2% on — it rises most years.
| Year | Wage base | Max employee tax |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $168,600 | $10,453 |
| 2025 | $176,100 | $10,918 |
| 2026you | $184,500 | $11,439 |
Social Security rates
| Who pays | Rate |
|---|---|
| Employee share (6.2%) | 6.2% |
| Employer match (6.2%) | 6.2% |
| Combined (12.4%) | 12.4% |
| Self-employed | 12.4% |
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- United States unless the calculator explicitly says otherwise
- Rules and time period
- Tax years supported by the selected calculator
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only, not a tax return or filing determination. U.S. statutory-threshold tools use USD. Confirm current law and your facts with the relevant authority or a qualified tax professional.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Choose the tax year and whether you're paying as an employee, an employer, or self-employed.
- 02
Enter your annual wages — or, when you're self-employed, the net profit your business earned this year.
- 03
Open Advanced options to add any Social Security wages another job already taxed this year, so the wage-base cap isn't double-counted.
- 04
Read the 6.2% employee share, the employer match, the combined 12.4%, your taxable wages, and how close you are to the annual wage-base cap.
- 05
Compare different income amounts, save scenarios side by side, and export the full breakdown to CSV or Excel.
Formula
Start with your gross wages for the year, then cap them: your taxable Social Security wages equal the smaller of your wages or the year's wage base ($184,500 for 2026). Any dollar above that line is invisible to this tax. From the taxable amount, an employee owes 6.2%. Your employer pays a matching 6.2% out of its own pocket, so 12.4% reaches Social Security in total, even though only half lands on your pay stub. If you work for yourself, you cover both halves. Take 92.35% of your net profit to reach your net self-employment earnings, apply the same wage-base cap, then charge 12.4%. You may deduct half of that Social Security amount when figuring your income tax. Earnings under $400 owe nothing. Because the cap is a hard ceiling, high earners pay a flat dollar amount and watch their effective rate drift below 6.2%; wages above the cap add zero. Scope: this is OASDI only — Medicare and federal income tax are calculated separately.
Example
Say you earn $200,000 in salary in 2026. Social Security doesn't touch all of it. The first $184,500 — the 2026 wage base — is taxable, and the remaining $15,500 sits above the cap and is charged $0. Your employee share is 6.2% of $184,500, or $11,439. Your employer quietly matches that with another $11,439, so $22,878 in total flows to Social Security on your behalf. Notice your effective rate: $11,439 divided by your full $200,000 salary is about 5.72%, below the headline 6.2%, precisely because the top $15,500 escaped. If you're paid every two weeks, the withholding doesn't spread evenly — you hit $11,439 partway through the year, and Social Security stops coming out after paycheck 24 of 26, leaving your last two checks of the year a little larger. By contrast, a self-employed person with $150,000 of net profit multiplies by 92.35% to get $138,525, pays 12.4% — $17,177.10 — and deducts half, $8,588.55, on their return. These figures are planning estimates, not legal, payroll, accounting, Social Security benefits, or tax advice.
Definitions
- Social Security (OASDI) tax
- The federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance tax that funds retirement, survivor, and disability benefits. It applies to wages and self-employment earnings up to an annual cap, and it's separate from Medicare and federal income tax.
- Wage base
- The yearly ceiling on earnings subject to Social Security tax. For 2026 it's $184,500 (it was $176,100 in 2025 and $168,600 in 2024). It resets each January and applies per person, not per job.
- The 6.2% rate
- The percentage an employee pays on taxable Social Security wages. Withheld from each paycheck, it stops for the year once your wages reach the wage base — in 2026, a maximum of $11,439.
- Employer match
- The matching 6.2% your employer pays on the same taxable wages, on top of what's withheld from you. It doesn't appear on your pay stub, but it doubles the money reaching Social Security on your earnings.
- Combined 12.4% rate
- Employee 6.2% plus employer 6.2% — the total Social Security tax on each taxable dollar. A self-employed person, acting as both worker and employer, pays this full 12.4% on their own net earnings.
- Taxable wages
- The portion of your earnings actually subject to Social Security tax: the smaller of your wages or the wage base. If you earn under the cap, all wages count; above it, only the cap amount does.
- Wages above the cap
- Every dollar you earn beyond the wage base in a year. Unlike Medicare wages, these owe zero Social Security tax, which is why very high earners see their effective Social Security rate fall below 6.2%.
- Self-employment Social Security tax
- The 12.4% a self-employed person pays on their net earnings (net profit × 92.35%), up to the wage base. Half of this amount is deductible when you figure your federal income tax.
- The 92.35% net-earnings factor
- The multiplier applied to a self-employed person's net profit before the 12.4% rate. Multiplying by 0.9235 approximates the employer-side adjustment, so self-employed people aren't taxed on the portion an employee would never owe.
- The $400 floor
- A threshold for the self-employed: if your net earnings from self-employment are below $400 for the year, you owe no Social Security tax on them. At $400 or more, the 12.4% applies.
Good to know
What the Social Security tax is and what it funds (OASDI)
The Social Security tax has a longer, more descriptive name buried in the law: OASDI, short for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance. Those three words tell you exactly where your money goes. The old-age piece funds the monthly retirement checks most people picture first. Survivors covers benefits paid to a worker's spouse and children after a death. Disability supports workers who can no longer earn a living before they reach retirement age. Every dollar this calculator measures flows into that single program. It helps to be just as clear about what this tax is not. It is not Medicare — that hospital-and-medical tax rides on the same pay stub but keeps its own rate, its own rules, and its own trust fund, and this tool deliberately leaves it out. It is not federal income tax, which bends to brackets, deductions, and dependents; Social Security ignores all of that and takes a flat slice of your wages instead. And it is certainly not your whole paycheck. The figure here is one specific line, not your take-home pay and not the sum of every payroll deduction. The program runs on a pay-as-you-go design rather than a personal account. The taxes collected from today's workers are paid out almost immediately to today's retirees, survivors, and disabled beneficiaries; nothing is locked away with your name on it. The credits you earn from years of paying the tax shape your future benefit, but the cash itself keeps moving. Treat the figures from this calculator as planning estimates, not legal, payroll, accounting, Social Security benefits, or tax advice — they exist to show where one well-defined tax lands, so the rest of your paycheck math can start from solid ground.
The 6.2% / 6.2% / 12.4% structure
Social Security tax is split down the middle between you and the company you work for. As an employee you pay 6.2% of your wages, and your employer is required to match it with another 6.2% out of its own funds. Stack the two halves together and the program collects 12.4% on every dollar you earn, up to the annual limit covered below. That matching design is the reason a worker only ever feels half the weight of what is, on paper, a 12.4% tax. Put real numbers on it. Say you earn $70,000 in 2026 and stay under the wage cap, so all $70,000 is taxable. Your 6.2% share works out to $4,340 — the amount that shows up withheld across your pay stubs for the year. Your employer quietly sends an identical $4,340 to the same program, money that never appears on your stub but still rides on your labor. Together the two contributions reach $8,680, the full 12.4%. Because every dollar of this salary sits under the cap, the effective rate stays a clean 6.2%, matching the headline rate exactly. Spread that withholding across a biweekly schedule and the bite feels small: $4,340 over 26 paychecks is about $166.92 of Social Security tax per check. Most workers never add up the matched half, so the program looks like a 6.2% cost when its true price on your work is double that. Economists tend to think the employer's half is passed back to workers over time as slimmer raises, meaning you carry more of the 12.4% than the stub admits — but for budgeting the cash that actually leaves your hands each payday, the 6.2% withheld is the number that counts.
The annual wage base cap — the defining feature
The wage base cap is what makes Social Security tax behave unlike almost any other tax on your paycheck. Each year the government sets a ceiling on the wages that can be taxed for Social Security. For 2026 that ceiling is $184,500. Once your year-to-date wages reach it, the tax simply stops — every dollar you earn after that point pays zero into the program for the rest of the year. The cap follows three rules worth committing to memory. First, it tends to rise to keep pace with average wage growth: it was $168,600 in 2024 and $176,100 in 2025 before climbing to $184,500 in 2026. Second, it resets every January. No matter how much you earned the year before, the meter starts over at the new ceiling on the first paycheck of the new year. Third, it is per person, not per household or per job — each worker gets their own ceiling, which matters for couples and for anyone holding more than one job at the same time. Return to the $70,000 earner from a moment ago. Against the 2026 cap of $184,500, that salary leaves $114,500 of room before any earnings would escape the tax. Most workers live comfortably under the ceiling and never bump into it, so for them the cap is invisible and the rate stays a flat 6.2%. The sharp contrast is Medicare, the tax this tool sets aside: Medicare has no ceiling at all. It keeps charging its rate on every dollar, however high a salary climbs, while Social Security politely steps aside the instant the wage base is met. That single difference — a hard cap on one tax and none on the other — explains most of the surprises high earners find on a December pay stub.
Wages above the wage base
Once your wages pass the wage base, the part above it walks away from Social Security tax untouched. This is the flip side of the cap, and it is where high earners watch their numbers drift away from the simple 6.2% rule. The tax applies only to wages up to the ceiling; anything beyond it is, for Social Security purposes, free of the tax entirely. Walk through a $200,000 salary in 2026. The wage base is $184,500, so only that amount is taxable — the remaining $15,500 sits above the cap and contributes nothing to Social Security. Your employee tax is 6.2% of $184,500, which comes to $11,439, the most any single worker can owe for the year. Your employer matches it for a combined $22,878. Now divide what you actually paid by your full salary: $11,439 against $200,000 is about 5.72%, not 6.2%. The effective rate has slipped below the headline rate, and the gap only widens the further your pay climbs above the ceiling. The drift happens because the numerator is frozen while the denominator keeps growing. Every dollar over $184,500 adds to your total wages but nothing to your Social Security tax, so the average rate you pay falls. Paid biweekly, this same earner would watch withholding stop partway through the year: the tax accrues at roughly $477 per check, so the $11,439 cap is reached during paycheck 24, and checks 25 and 26 carry no Social Security tax at all. December can feel like a quiet raise, though it is just the cap doing its job. Keep in mind these figures are planning estimates rather than legal, payroll, accounting, Social Security benefits, or tax advice — exact stubs hinge on pay dates and mid-year changes — but the shape holds: above the wage base, your Social Security rate only goes down.
Paying both halves: Social Security when you work for yourself
When you work for yourself, there is no employer standing beside you to split the bill, so the entire 12.4% Social Security rate is yours to carry. Before that rate touches a thing, though, your profit gets trimmed. You take the net profit from your business and multiply it by 92.35% (0.9235) to reach what the IRS calls your net earnings from self-employment. That 7.65% shave is no loophole; it mirrors the slice of an employee's pay that never gets taxed because the employer's half sits outside their wage base. Run a $150,000 net profit for 2026 through that step and you land at $138,525 in net earnings — comfortably under the $184,500 wage base, so every dollar of it stays in play. Apply 12.4% to that $138,525 and your Social Security self-employment tax comes to $17,177.10. Measured against the original $150,000 of profit, that is roughly 11.45% — lighter than the headline 12.4% precisely because of the 92.35% step. The relief continues at filing time: you may deduct half of what you just paid, $8,588.55 here, as an adjustment to income. One point deserves to be stated plainly. The deductible half this tool shows is the Social Security portion only; the full one-half-of-self-employment-tax deduction you actually claim also folds in a Medicare half, which belongs to a separate calculator. A floor protects the smallest ventures from the tax entirely. Should the 92.35% adjustment leave you with under $400 in net earnings, the year owes no Social Security self-employment tax at all — a quiet side gig clearing only a few hundred dollars never trips the wire. Treat these numbers as planning estimates only, not legal, payroll, accounting, Social Security benefits, or tax advice; your filed return is where the official numbers settle.
The employer's matching 6.2%: a real cost of every hire
The 6.2% pulled from your paycheck is only half of what Social Security collects on your work. For every dollar withheld from your check, your employer sends a matching dollar of its own straight to the government. Stacked together, the two halves form the full 12.4% the program takes — yet only one half ever prints on your pay stub. Picture a $70,000 salary in 2026: you would watch $4,340 come out across the year, while your employer pays a second $4,340 you never see, for $8,680 in total resting on your earnings. Seen from the company's side, that match is no accounting abstraction — it is a real, recurring cost of keeping each person on the payroll. Every employee carries an individual 6.2% line that sits apart from wages, benefits, and the rest of the taxes a payroll team manages. When an owner is deciding whether a role pays for itself, the matching contribution belongs in the calculation right beside the salary. This tool reports the employer share on its own line so the expense is out in the open instead of hidden inside one blended number. The two sides share one important limit. Because the match rides on the same annual wage base as the employee's tax, the employer's bill also halts once a worker's year-to-date wages hit $184,500 in 2026 — beyond that point, neither party owes another cent of Social Security tax on the surplus pay. That common ceiling is exactly what sets this tax apart from Medicare, which keeps drawing contributions with no upper bound at all. Read these results as planning estimates rather than payroll, accounting, or tax advice; your real pay records and filings have the final say.
Job changes, two jobs, and the excess Social Security credit
The wage base cap is a per-person limit, and it wipes clean every January — which makes both job changes and second jobs surprisingly easy to get wrong. Switch employers partway through the year and your new payroll office starts your Social Security tax over at zero. It holds no record of the wages your previous employer already taxed, so it has no way to know you are already partway to the cap. Each employer simply measures its own payroll against the $184,500 ceiling for 2026, and nothing connects the two. A single mid-year move is usually harmless. If your combined wages for the year never reach the cap, every dollar was meant to be taxed regardless, so the handoff costs you nothing. Trouble shows up when your total pay across two or more jobs climbs past $184,500. Suppose you held two positions that together paid $220,000 in 2026. Each employer faithfully withheld 6.2% on its own portion, but between them they taxed more than the wage base permits. You have now paid past the $11,439 yearly maximum a single worker should owe — even though neither employer made a mistake. Your tax return is where this gets corrected. Anything withheld above the annual maximum is not gone for good; it returns as the excess Social Security tax credit, trimming your federal income tax dollar for dollar or padding your refund. You claim it yourself when you file, with no need to chase either employer. The one limit: the credit only applies to over-withholding from two or more employers. When a single employer takes out too much on its own, you have to ask that company to fix it rather than claim the credit. Treat these numbers as planning estimates, not legal, payroll, accounting, or tax advice — your filed return decides the final amount.
Watching the tax accrue — and stop — check by check
Social Security tax isn't billed once at year-end; it accrues a little at a time, on every paycheck, as 6.2% of that check's gross wages. Payroll quietly keeps a running tally of your year-to-date earnings, and as long as that tally sits below the annual wage base, each check carries its full 6.2% slice. For someone whose pay stays under the cap all year, the rhythm never changes — the same percentage comes out in January as in December, and the effective rate stays a flat 6.2%. The picture flips for a high earner. Take the calculator's high-earner example: $200,000 in 2026 wages paid across 26 biweekly checks, roughly $7,692 each. At 6.2% that's about $476.92 of Social Security tax per check — until your year-to-date wages press against the $184,500 cap. That happens partway through paycheck 24. Through paycheck 23 each check carries the full $476.92; on paycheck 24 you cross the cap mid-check, so only the slice of pay still under $184,500 is taxed. Everything after that, including all of paychecks 25 and 26, carries zero Social Security tax. Your withholding simply stops for the rest of the year. Add it up and the math reconciles to a clean ceiling: the year's employee Social Security tax tops out at $11,439, exactly 6.2% of $184,500, no matter that you actually earned $200,000. The $15,500 above the cap is untaxed for Social Security, which is why the effective rate lands near 5.72% rather than the full 6.2%. A fatter end-of-year paycheck then makes sense — it isn't a raise or a payroll glitch, just the cap doing its job. Medicare doesn't behave this way; it keeps coming out all year, but that's a separate tax this tool leaves alone. Treat these numbers as planning estimates only.
Where the wage base comes from, and how the maximum has climbed
The wage base isn't a round number someone picks out of the air; it is recalculated every year by the Social Security Administration and tied to growth in national average wages. When earnings across the country rise, the cap is nudged up to match, which is why it climbs in most years and holds flat only in the rare year when average wages stall or there is no cost-of-living adjustment. From a modest figure in the program's early decades it has marched into the six-figure territory it occupies today, and the long-run trend has pointed steadily upward. Recent steps show the pace. The wage base was $168,600 in 2024, rose to $176,100 in 2025, and sits at $184,500 for 2026 — the default year in this calculator. Because the 6.2% employee rate is fixed, each bump in the base lifts the most Social Security tax any single worker can owe. That maximum was $10,453.20 in 2024, $10,918.20 in 2025, and $11,439.00 in 2026. Once you cross the cap you have paid the year's full amount; not a dollar more comes out, however much further your salary runs. The same ceiling scales for the other roles the tool models. An employer matches the worker's tax dollar for dollar, so the combined Social Security cost on a maxed-out salary reaches twice the employee figure — $22,878 in 2026. A self-employed person, standing in for both halves, faces that same 12.4% ceiling on their own earnings. Tracking which year's base applies matters because the numbers reset every January: a new cap, a new maximum, and a fresh running total that begins again at zero on your first check of the year. Plugging the correct year into the calculator keeps your estimate aligned with the figures your payroll will actually use.
What moves your Social Security tax — and a short planning checklist
Three things drive the number. First, employment type: as an employee you pay 6.2% and your employer matches it, so $70,000 of wages costs you $4,340 while your employer sends another $4,340 — about $166.92 of your share per biweekly check. Work for yourself and you cover both sides at 12.4%, but only after trimming net profit to 92.35%; $150,000 of net profit becomes $138,525 of net earnings and $17,177.10 of Social Security tax, of which half — $8,588.55 — is deductible against income tax. Second, income level: more pay means more tax, right up to the wage base, after which the rate on the next dollar effectively falls to zero. Third, the year, since the cap and the maximum reset every January. A quick checklist before you rely on a figure: confirm you are using the right year's wage base; if you changed jobs mid-year, remember each employer restarts the cap at zero, so your combined withholding can overshoot the annual maximum — you reclaim that excess as a credit on your federal return. If you are self-employed, set aside roughly 12.4% of your net earnings up to the cap and pencil in the deductible half. If you are a high earner, expect Social Security to disappear from your checks once you reach the cap. And remember Medicare, by contrast, has no wage ceiling and keeps withholding all year — but it is handled by a separate tool. These results are planning estimates to help you anticipate cash flow and set money aside — not legal, payroll, accounting, Social Security benefits, or tax advice. Real payroll systems, multiple jobs, state rules, and a preparer's judgment can all shift the final numbers. Use the figures to plan with confidence, then confirm the specifics with your employer, your accountant, or the Social Security Administration before making decisions.
Frequently asked questions
What does this Social Security Tax Calculator estimate?
It estimates the Social Security (OASDI) portion of payroll tax on your wages or self-employment earnings for a single year, and nothing else. Enter what you earn and the tool shows the 6.2% withheld from an employee, the 6.2% an employer matches, the combined 12.4%, or the full 12.4% a self-employed person owes. It tracks the annual wage base cap and flags when your earnings cross it. For a $70,000 employee in 2026, that's $4,340 withheld plus a $4,340 employer match. Treat every result as a planning estimate, not legal, payroll, accounting, Social Security benefits, or tax advice.
What is the 6.2% OASDI tax, and what does it fund?
OASDI stands for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, the formal name for Social Security. As an employee, 6.2% of your covered wages is withheld each pay period and sent to the federal government, where it funds retirement checks, benefits for surviving spouses and children, and disability payments. It is a dedicated tax, separate from the income tax that pays for general government. The 6.2% you contribute is matched by your employer, so 12.4% of your wages flows into the program in total. On $70,000 of wages, your share comes to $4,340 for the year.
What is the wage base, and how does the cap work?
Social Security tax reaches only as far as a yearly wage base, which Congress adjusts most years. For 2026 the cap is $184,500; it was $176,100 in 2025 and $168,600 in 2024. Once your year-to-date earnings reach that ceiling, you owe no more Social Security tax until January, when the count resets to zero. The cap is per person, so each spouse gets a separate one. It's also why the most an employee can pay in 2026 is $11,439, exactly 6.2% of $184,500. The calculator applies the cap for whichever year you pick and shows how much room you have left.
Why do I only pay 6.2% when the tax is 12.4%?
The headline 12.4% rate is split down the middle between two payers. As an employee, you cover half, 6.2%, through payroll withholding, and your employer pays the other 6.2% directly. You never see the employer's half on your pay stub, but it is real money tied to your job. On $70,000 of wages, that's $4,340 from you and $4,340 from your employer, $8,680 combined. The split disappears when you work for yourself: a self-employed person is both worker and boss, so they shoulder the entire 12.4% alone. The calculator can show either view depending on how you file.
Does my employer really pay an equal share?
Yes. For every dollar of Social Security tax withheld from your check, your employer sends a matching dollar to the government from its own funds. It is not deducted from your wages and does not appear in box 4 of your W-2, which shows only your 6.2%. For a worker earning $70,000 in 2026, the employer's contribution is $4,340, identical to the $4,340 withheld from you, for $8,680 combined. Economists debate whether that employer share ultimately comes out of wages over the long run, but on paper and by law it is the company's payment, not yours.
How is self-employed Social Security different?
When you work for yourself, there is no employer to split the bill, so you pay both halves: the full 12.4% on your net Social Security earnings. This is the OASDI piece of self-employment tax. The same annual wage base cap applies, and you get a partial offset, since you may deduct half of the Social Security portion you pay. For $150,000 of net profit in 2026, the tool figures net earnings of $138,525, a 12.4% tax of $17,177.10, and a deductible half of $8,588.55. The full one-half-of-SE-tax income deduction also includes a Medicare half, which this Social Security-only tool does not model.
Why are self-employment earnings multiplied by 92.35%?
Self-employed people don't pay Social Security tax on every dollar of net profit. First, your net profit is multiplied by 92.35% (0.9235) to reach net earnings from self-employment. That roughly 7.65% haircut mirrors the employer-side payroll tax an employee never pays income tax on, keeping the two situations comparable. The 12.4% Social Security rate, along with the wage base cap, then applies to that smaller figure. In the worked example, $150,000 of profit becomes $138,525 of net earnings, which sits under the 2026 cap, so the entire amount is taxed at 12.4% for $17,177.10. These are planning estimates, not tax advice.
What happens to wages above the cap?
Earnings above the annual wage base pay zero Social Security tax; that part of your income is simply exempt. Suppose you earn $200,000 in 2026: only the first $184,500 is taxed, and the remaining $15,500 escapes Social Security entirely. Your employee tax tops out at $11,439, and because some pay went untaxed, your effective Social Security rate falls to about 5.72% instead of the full 6.2%. The more you earn over the cap, the lower that effective rate drifts. This exemption is unique to Social Security; Medicare, by contrast, has no wage ceiling and keeps applying to every dollar.
I changed jobs mid-year, did I overpay Social Security?
Possibly. Each employer withholds 6.2% up to the full wage base on its own, with no knowledge of what an earlier job already took out. If your combined wages from two or more jobs pushed you past the cap, you likely had too much Social Security tax withheld. The fix is the excess Social Security tax credit: when you file your federal return, you claim the overpayment and it lowers your tax bill or increases your refund. For 2026, anything withheld beyond $11,439 across all employers is recoverable this way. A single employer that over-withholds must instead correct the error directly.
Is there a minimum before self-employment Social Security applies?
Yes, a $400 floor. Should your yearly self-employment net earnings total under $400, no Social Security tax is owed on them, and the calculator returns zero. Keep in mind that "net earnings" means your net profit after the 92.35% adjustment, not your gross revenue. Once you reach $400 or more, the full 12.4% applies from the first dollar of those net earnings, not only the amount above $400. The threshold is modest, so most people running a genuine side business or sole proprietorship clear it easily and do owe the tax.
Can Social Security withholding stop partway through the year?
It can, and for high earners it usually does. Because withholding halts once your year-to-date wages reach the cap, a steady paycheck can hit the ceiling before December. Take someone earning $200,000 in 2026, paid every two weeks: their wages cross $184,500 around the 24th of 26 checks, so Social Security withholding stops for the final two paychecks of the year. Those last checks will look a little larger. Withholding then restarts automatically in January when the new year's wage base takes effect. The calculator estimates which paycheck triggers the stop based on the pay frequency you enter.
Why isn't Medicare included in this calculator?
This tool is deliberately Social Security-only, so it leaves Medicare out entirely. Medicare is a separate 1.45% employee tax (2.9% combined), plus a 0.9% Additional Medicare surtax on high earners, and it differs in one key way: Medicare has no wage cap, so it keeps applying to every dollar you earn, while Social Security stops at the wage base. Folding the two together would blur the cap that defines this calculator. If you want the full payroll picture, use the dedicated Medicare tool alongside this one; here, every figure reflects the 6.2% and 12.4% Social Security portion and nothing else.
Are these numbers tax advice?
No. Everything here is a planning estimate built from published Social Security rates and wage base figures, meant to help you understand how the OASDI tax works, not legal, payroll, accounting, Social Security benefits, or tax advice. Real paychecks and returns depend on details this tool doesn't capture: multiple jobs, mid-year raises, employer payroll systems, special wage types, and rules that change from year to year. The wage base itself is adjusted regularly. Before you make decisions about withholding, estimated taxes, or filing, confirm the current figures with the Social Security Administration, the IRS, or a qualified tax professional.