FICA Tax Calculator

FICA stands for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act. It funds Social Security and Medicare through a payroll tax. The employee pays 6.2% for Social Security plus 1.45% for Medicare, which totals 7.65% of wages. The employer pays a matching 7.65%, so the combined contribution to the federal program is 15.3% of wages. The employee share comes straight out of each paycheck and the employer share never shows on the pay stub, but it is part of the true cost of employing the worker. Employers send both halves to the IRS quarterly using Form 941.

For 2026, Social Security tax only applies to the first $184,500 of wages. Earnings above that cap owe no further Social Security tax, which is why high earners see a small bump in their take-home pay later in the year once they hit it. Medicare works differently: the 1.45% base rate applies to every dollar of wages with no cap at all, and an extra 0.9% Additional Medicare surtax kicks in above the filing-status threshold. So at very high incomes, Social Security tax shuts off but Medicare keeps growing.

The Additional Medicare Tax is 0.9% on wages above $200,000 for single filers, $250,000 for married filing jointly, or $125,000 for married filing separately. Unlike the base Medicare tax, the employer does not match this surtax: it is an employee-only liability. Your employer is required to start withholding it once your own wages with that employer cross $200,000, regardless of your filing status, so married filers sometimes owe a small additional amount at tax time (or get a refund) once both spouses' wages are combined on the joint return.

Self-employed workers pay both halves of FICA themselves as the Self-Employment Contributions Act tax (SECA). That works out to 12.4% Social Security on net earnings up to the wage base, plus 2.9% Medicare on all net earnings, for a combined 15.3% baseline. The 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax applies on top above the same filing-status thresholds. There are two partial offsets: you can deduct half of the SECA tax as an above-the-line adjustment on your federal income tax return, and you only owe SECA on 92.35% of net self-employment earnings (not 100%).

No. Traditional pretax 401(k) contributions reduce your federal (and most state) income tax, but they do not reduce wages subject to Social Security or Medicare. Putting $20,000 into your 401(k) still leaves all $20,000 in your FICA wage base. The only common pretax benefits that lower FICA wages are Section 125 cafeteria plan deductions: pretax medical, dental, vision, and HSA contributions made through payroll. That is one reason payroll HSAs are uniquely powerful: they escape federal income tax, state income tax in most states, and FICA all at once.