Skip to content Social Security Online |
Automatic Determinations |
www.socialsecurity.gov |
Office of the Chief Actuary |
Contribution and Benefit Base |
Social Security's Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability
Insurance (OASDI) program limits the amount of earnings subject to taxation for
a given year. The same annual limit also applies when those earnings are used
in a benefit computation. This limit changes each year with changes
in the national average wage index. We call this annual
limit the contribution and benefit base. For earnings in 2012, this base is
$110,100.
The OASDI tax rate for wages paid in 1990 and later was set by statute at 6.2 percent for employees and employers, each, and 12.4 percent for self-employed workers. Since then, legislation has altered these rates. For 2011 and 2012, the OASDI tax rate is reduced by 2 percentage points for employees and for self-employed workers. For Medicare's Hospital Insurance (HI) program, the taxable maximum was the same as that for the OASDI program for 1966-1990. Separate HI taxable maximums of $125,000, $130,200, and $135,000 were applicable in 1991-93, respectively. After 1993, there has been no limitation on HI-taxable earnings. Tax rates under the HI program are 1.45 percent for employees and employers, each, and 2.90 percent for self-employed persons. |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Note: Amounts for 1937-74 and for 1979-81 were set by statute; all other amounts were determined under automatic adjustment provisions of the Social Security Act. |
Privacy Policy
| Website Policies
& Other Important Information
| Site Map Last reviewed or modified March 8, 2012 |