Originally Posted by
PilotWombat
Ummm...no? Schedule 3, line 11, which carries over to 1040 line 31. That's a refundable credit, not an itemized deduction. Which means you get it back in the form of either a reduction in your taxes or even a refund if the math works out that way.
Also, why are you including your employer's contribution in your math? Unless you're self-employed (which many pilots with side hustles are), that's somebody else's problem.
Now that's straight SS, not medicare, which has no cap and you'd fall into the additional 0.9% bracket. But that's a different thing.
Ummm, yes. You didn't read what was written. YOU get a credit for what is witheld above the SS income CAP. Your labor still generates a 6.2% contribution to the government above that wage base, however. The employer doesn't get that money back. You don't get that money as wages, either. The government keeps it.
https://www.greenbushfinancial.com/a...%9CNo%E2%80%9D.
"The Employer Does Not Get A Refund
FICA tax is paid by both the employee and the employer:
Employee Social Security: 6.2%
Employer Social Security: 6.2%
Employee Medicare: 1.45%
Employer Medicare: 1.45%
Total FICA EE & ER: 15.3%
So if the employee works for 2 different companies, they have combined wages over the $176,100 taxable wage base, making them eligible for a FICA refund for the 6.2% of social security tax on wages paid over the wage base, does the EMPLOYER also get a refund for those excess FICA withholdings?
The answer, unfortunately, is “No”.
If an employee works for 10 different companies and makes $100,000 in W2 wages with each company, each of those 10 employers would withhold the full FICA tax from that employee’s $100,000 in W2 wages, but since the employee had $1,000,000 in combined wages, they would be due a $51,081.80 refund in FICA wages ($1M - $176,100 x 6.2%). However, the government keeps that full 6.2% that was paid in by each of the 10 employers with no refund due to any of the companies."
The government gets to keep an additional 6.2% of my labor just because I happened to do labor for more than one employer. My labor generated that money. It's mine, and it's BS the government keeps it.