Axel Slingerland
Blues Rocker
- Location
- 10 Miles North of Weedpatch
Hey Y'all,
As you may have noticed in the half day since I turned up here, I love to write. I've been working on an article about removing the FICA Cap because it is unfair to everyone who makes less than the Cap. This part of it is where I'm stuck. Can someone familiar with such things tell me if my information is correct and whether what I have written makes logical sense? I would appreciate it very much.
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According to the IRS, the current tax rate for Social Security is 6.2% for the employer and 6.2% for the employee, or 12.4% if you are self-employed. The current rate for Medicare is 1.45% for the employer and 1.45% for the employee, or 2.9% if you are self-employed. There's a 0.9% Additional Medicare tax on wages in excess of $200,000, and there's is no wage base limit for Medicare tax.
That sounds like a lot to me because I didn't make anywhere near that much. But to rich people, that is a drop in the bucket of their income. I don't believe that rich people should have to pay 94% of their income for taxes, as they had to do after WWII. But they should have to pay their fair share of all taxes. If any special treatment should be given to anyone, it should be given to those who need the most, not people who can afford many times their fair share.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics website states the following:
"In 2022, 78.7 million workers age 16 and older in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 55.6 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 141,000 workers earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 882,000 workers had wages below the federal minimum. Together, these 1.0 million workers with wages at or below the federal minimum made up 1.3 percent of all hourly paid workers, little changed from 2021."
And oddly enough, they seem to think that is all minimum wage earners. Anyone who lives in California for example, where Fast Food workers make $20 an hour, that is referred to as minimum wage. For simplicity (read: nice, round figures), I will use $20 an hour for the following assessment:
If someone makes $20 an hour that is $200 a day, or $1,000 a week gross, which based on 261 work days of a 365 day year, that comes to a gross of $52,200 a year. That is 30.96% of the FICA Cap. So that person must pay 6.2% of their total income before taxes are taken out, for FICA Contributions, or 12.4% if you're self-employed.
However, someone who makes more than the FICA Cap pays proportionally less in FICA Contributions the higher their income goes. 6.2% of $168,600 is $10,453.19. However, 6.2% of $1,686,000 (ten times the FICA Cap) the FICA Contribution is still $10,453.19, but if that person had to pay his fair share of FICA Contributions, it would be $104,532.
If they made 100 times the FICA Cap, it would be $16,860,000 and their fair share of FICA Contributions would be $1,045,320. And the more money they make, the more they should have to pay as their Fair Share. But they don't. All they have to pay in FICA Contributions, no matter how much more they make over $168,600 is $10,453.19 a year. (Or $25,906.38 a year if they are self employed.) Even if they make $Millions or $Trillions. Think about that for a little while...
I saw a list of the 25 highest paid corporate CEOs of 2024 and #25 made $54,400,000. 6.2% of that is $3,379,000. How much was this person's FICA Contribution? Just $10,453.19.
Does it seem fair to you? If it doesn't, feel free to copy what I wrote above and ask your Congressional Representatives about it. Because not all of them are rich.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Comments?
As you may have noticed in the half day since I turned up here, I love to write. I've been working on an article about removing the FICA Cap because it is unfair to everyone who makes less than the Cap. This part of it is where I'm stuck. Can someone familiar with such things tell me if my information is correct and whether what I have written makes logical sense? I would appreciate it very much.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
According to the IRS, the current tax rate for Social Security is 6.2% for the employer and 6.2% for the employee, or 12.4% if you are self-employed. The current rate for Medicare is 1.45% for the employer and 1.45% for the employee, or 2.9% if you are self-employed. There's a 0.9% Additional Medicare tax on wages in excess of $200,000, and there's is no wage base limit for Medicare tax.
That sounds like a lot to me because I didn't make anywhere near that much. But to rich people, that is a drop in the bucket of their income. I don't believe that rich people should have to pay 94% of their income for taxes, as they had to do after WWII. But they should have to pay their fair share of all taxes. If any special treatment should be given to anyone, it should be given to those who need the most, not people who can afford many times their fair share.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics website states the following:
"In 2022, 78.7 million workers age 16 and older in the United States were paid at hourly rates, representing 55.6 percent of all wage and salary workers. Among those paid by the hour, 141,000 workers earned exactly the prevailing federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. About 882,000 workers had wages below the federal minimum. Together, these 1.0 million workers with wages at or below the federal minimum made up 1.3 percent of all hourly paid workers, little changed from 2021."
And oddly enough, they seem to think that is all minimum wage earners. Anyone who lives in California for example, where Fast Food workers make $20 an hour, that is referred to as minimum wage. For simplicity (read: nice, round figures), I will use $20 an hour for the following assessment:
If someone makes $20 an hour that is $200 a day, or $1,000 a week gross, which based on 261 work days of a 365 day year, that comes to a gross of $52,200 a year. That is 30.96% of the FICA Cap. So that person must pay 6.2% of their total income before taxes are taken out, for FICA Contributions, or 12.4% if you're self-employed.
However, someone who makes more than the FICA Cap pays proportionally less in FICA Contributions the higher their income goes. 6.2% of $168,600 is $10,453.19. However, 6.2% of $1,686,000 (ten times the FICA Cap) the FICA Contribution is still $10,453.19, but if that person had to pay his fair share of FICA Contributions, it would be $104,532.
If they made 100 times the FICA Cap, it would be $16,860,000 and their fair share of FICA Contributions would be $1,045,320. And the more money they make, the more they should have to pay as their Fair Share. But they don't. All they have to pay in FICA Contributions, no matter how much more they make over $168,600 is $10,453.19 a year. (Or $25,906.38 a year if they are self employed.) Even if they make $Millions or $Trillions. Think about that for a little while...
I saw a list of the 25 highest paid corporate CEOs of 2024 and #25 made $54,400,000. 6.2% of that is $3,379,000. How much was this person's FICA Contribution? Just $10,453.19.
Does it seem fair to you? If it doesn't, feel free to copy what I wrote above and ask your Congressional Representatives about it. Because not all of them are rich.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Comments?
