Author Topic: Help with FICA employee tax vs FICA Self employed tax  (Read 1040 times)

BTDretire

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Help with FICA employee tax vs FICA Self employed tax
« on: April 06, 2019, 09:12:43 AM »
 I made a Google sheets calculator to calculate life time earned income from your SS statement.
 I recently noticed on my SE form, (I'm self employed) the you income is multiplied by 92.35%
before the tax is computed. I made the adjustment, BUT,

 Now I wonder, do employees get the same 92.35% reduction before tax computation?

Joel

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Re: Help with FICA employee tax vs FICA Self employed tax
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2019, 01:07:13 PM »
That’s to account for the employer share of fica taxes that regular employees don’t typically see.

BTDretire

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Re: Help with FICA employee tax vs FICA Self employed tax
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2019, 02:13:33 PM »
That’s to account for the employer share of fica taxes that regular employees don’t typically see.
Let me explain to see if I understand.
Employee grosses $100- OK I can't explain it so I don't understand.
I'm self employed so I pay both halves of the FICA.
Maybe my employer half of me gets a deduction for the portion I paid for my employee half?
Sound Right?
Maybe I do understand.
OK don't understand the precise numbers but how about the concept?
I have included Medicare tax of 1.45%
 Employer me pays employee me $100, Employee pays $7.65 of SS Tax.
Employer pays 7.65* 0.9325 = $7.13 of SS tax.
 Is that the concept, if yes, you can go on to the precise numbers that I don't get.
 

dandarc

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Re: Help with FICA employee tax vs FICA Self employed tax
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2019, 02:45:02 PM »
You're an employee - you make $100 - your employer pays $7.65 in employer-side FICA. You really made $107.65, but you never even see that $7.65 in FICA tax on your pay stub.

You're self employed - you make $107.65. You have to pay both sides of FICA on that income as well, but to square things up, the law says multiply the gross amount by 92.35% first, so you pay self employment tax on $99.41 - $15.20 of self employment tax - $7.60 of "employer-side" FICA tax.

The adjustment is just a quick way to square things up between 1099 and W-2 income. It isn't exactly perfect, but it is pretty close. We have a lot of these approximations in the tax code.

BTDretire

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Re: Help with FICA employee tax vs FICA Self employed tax
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2019, 10:46:23 AM »

  OK, that works for me.
                 Thanks.

Kinda messes with my Google sheets lifetime earnings calculator though.
 I thought using my SS statement earnings would be great, then I found the self employment
adjustment. Some years both employees, some years one employee one self employed and
some years both self employed.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!