payroll tax
Ask Rusty – My Friend is 65; shouldn’t she be exempt from Medicare payroll taxes?
Dear Rusty: My girlfriend is 65 and she just enrolled in Medicare. She is still working full time as a nurse, but they are still deducting Medicare taxes from her paycheck. I thought as soon as you started Medicare, that…
Social Security and the Federal Payroll Tax
Nearly all workers pay it, but very few understand it – the Federal Payroll Tax. With few exceptions,[1] everyone who works and earns a paycheck is subject to the federal payroll tax on their earnings. That’s more than 180 million American workers, about 93% of the U.S. non-government workforce. …
Social Security’s Looming Insolvency…deja vu all over again?
Although he claimed he never said most of the things he said, baseball legend Yogi Bera is remembered by many for his utterance, “It’s deja vu all over again!” That phrase seems to be popping up frequently these days in…
Stimulus Negotiations and Comments on a Payroll Tax Holiday
Pre-recess deliberations on another coronavirus relief package are continuing amid complex and divergent viewpoints on the size and content of further relief. From a Social Security standpoint, one of the concerns continues to be the administration’s continuing push for a…
Clarification of the CARES Act Rules on Payroll Tax Deferral
The National Law Review, in a post today on their website, explains a number of provisions enacted via the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), along with a recap of…
The Debate on Payroll Tax Elimination
President Trump, in a Coronavirus Task Force briefing yesterday, discussed his thoughts on cutting and/or eliminating the payroll tax withheld by employers, thereby generating immediate financial relief for workers. The 7.65% payroll tax (6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare) represents…
Explaining “Payroll Taxes” and Who Pays Them
Yahoo Finance contributor Rickie Houston, in a post on their site, examines the composition of “payroll taxes,” a term that has again surfaced in the stream of commentary surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic implications. Houston’s article defines the term…
The Case Against a Payroll Tax Cut
As we pointed out in our March 18 headline post, the idea of a payroll tax reduction or the complete elimination of the payroll tax for a period of time could have serious consequences for a program already in the…
MEDPAC Report Calls for Immediate Medicare Tax Increase
MedPAC, the independent nonpartisan legislative branch agency established by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 to provide the U.S. Congress with analysis and policy advice on the Medicare program, released its March 2020 report to Congress last Friday. Citing a projected depletion of the…
Would a coronavirus-driven tax cut be the best solution?
Sure, there’s a substantial level of panic in many quarters of our country right now. Whether it’s in the financial sector, as evidenced by the quick shift from a bull market to bear territory, or the employment sector, with potential…