Vague sense of futile rage while filing my tax return

[Make7]

5. What is FICA? (From CNN Money)

 
[div class="excerpt" style="margin-left: 1em; border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.4615em; box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #999999;"][font style="font-size:1.538em;"]What is FICA?[/font]

[font style="font-size:1.077em;"]If you're a wage or salaried employee, your employer picks up half of this tax burden.[/font]

Under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) 12.4% of earned income up to an annual limit must be paid into Social Security, and an additional 2.9% must be paid into Medicare.

That limit is $110,100 for 2012.

There are no earned income limits on Medicare taxes -- so even if your salary is well above the cap for Social Security tax, you will still owe Medicare tax on your total earned income.

If you're a wage or salaried employee, you pay only half the FICA bill (In 2012, 4.2% for Social Security plus 1.45% for Medicare), and the tax is automatically withheld.

Your employer contributes the rest.

If you're self-employed, however, you're expected to cough up both the employee and the employer share of FICA. You are, however, permitted to deduct half of this self-employment tax as a business expense.[font style="font-size:.8462em;"]


[div class="footer" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; display:inline;"]http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/money101/lesson18/index4.htm[/font]
FICA is Social Security. The 2.9% is for Medicare.