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They already do..FICA is divided between employer and employee.
The Trustees recommend upping FICA to 15% from the current 12.4%
You miss a critical part of the discussion. We're not discussing the rate of the first 113K, we're discussing the total rate.
For example, lets say I made 226K last year, I would pay a rate of 6.2%. If however I made 113K I pay a rate of 12.4%. Thats because the FICA tax only applies to the first 113K of income. The suggestion being discussed is to make it apply to all income, not just the first 113K of income.
You miss a critical part of the discussion. We're not discussing the rate of the first 113K, we're discussing the total rate.
For example, lets say I made 226K last year, I would pay a rate of 6.2%. If however I made 113K I pay a rate of 12.4%. Thats because the FICA tax only applies to the first 113K of income. The suggestion being discussed is to make it apply to all income, not just the first 113K of income.
No, you, not "we", are discussing the "total rate". The poster you replied to was discussing the rate up to the cap. Just because you brought up raising or eliminating the cap, that doesn't mean all subsequent discussion in the thread has to be on that topic.
Regardless SS retirement is a program of partial retirement for workers and each has a account. Its not a welfare program supported by someone else rich or not. I see no support in any of the hearings that its was even mention. Only the extreme left lately but no one I have heard wants it turn into another welfare program. We have those already and some if cuts happen may be in that boat at some point of qualifying.
One of the things the Federal government could do to help mandatory spending like Social Security is to stop doling out so many TAX BREAKS to individual and companies that are already rolling in wealth. Lawmakers have written hundreds of tax breaks into the federal tax code. One that would fatten the budget considerably would be to normalize the special low tax rates that are charged to on capital gains. That's one of the ways people like Buffett, Romney, and Trump got so rich. Sanders Estate Tax Plan Aimed at the Richest of the Rich - US News
Quote:
Originally Posted by biscuitmom
... DH & I are set in our retirement even without SS, we're blessed to have good pensions and return from investments.
But our sons and their peers are floundering so we tend to look at things from their perspective.
One of the things that is hurting the younger generation the most is the exorbitant price of higher education and the high interest rates young people are paying on money borrowed for their educations. It seems egregious to me that the Federal government is reaping profits from money borrowed for tuition payments while we offer huge tax subsidies to corporations like Wells Fargo, AT&T, ExxonMobil, J.P Morgan Chase, and Wal-Mart. Not to mention that from 2008 to 2012, 26 of America's most powerful companies PAID NO FEDERAL INCOME TAX. That's companies like Boeing, General Electric, and Verizon. Does that many ANY sense?? ​26 top American corporations paid no federal income tax from ’08 to ’12 – report  RT USA
For a lot of people who are on disability and can never work again, their disability checks is all their income. Slashing the disability will put many people into the streets.
If you increase the cap significantly then deferred compensation among the highly paid will increase as well. You can only get FICA tax from earned income.
Example...Warren Buffet is millionaire yet his "earned income" is only $100K a year.
Of course. Every change to tax law results in new strategies for taxpayers.
I think that SS disability needs to be examined closely to verify the actual disabilities of the recipients. Many people are living off disability while working under the table. Thus they take from the taxpayers without ever being taxed themselves. I know people who live on disability that do everything that I can do (housework, gardening, driving, hobbies, camping etc.) If they can do all that why can't they work? I have an acquaintance who was severely injured 25 years ago. Today she is as capable as any other 55 year old, but she has lived on SDI and private disability insurance all this time, and will until she dies. Her private disability was reduced about ten years ago because the insurance company had her re-examined and cut her private disability payment by 75%. I mean unless laziness is a disability, she is no longer fully disabled. I, personally, would not want to live on that small amount, but she has a live-in man for the last 15 years who works under the table so that he doesn't have to pay the state back for the aid given to his children when he didn't pay his child support. So they pay no taxes, are both capable of holding jobs (she has a master's degree), and live off the taxpayers.
I feel that there should be some sort of periodic examination of those claiming disability to re-validate their claims. And I feel that even if you can no longer do your old job, you can probably do SOME job that provides value to the world. I had a co-worker who was permanently blinded in a car accident, she went back to work within the year at her old job! The company made some accommodations and she kept her position as telephone operator for the company until her retirement 10 years later.
If they are denied benefits, why should they pay the payroll tax? That turns it into a welfare system.
That is what the advocates of means testing want. Turn it into welfare, then convince the people that the recipients are alcohol or drug using parasites, then it's easy to get public support for cutting the benefits.
For a lot of people who are on disability and can never work again, their disability checks is all their income. Slashing the disability will put many people into the streets.
This is so true for so many people, including me except my family would never let me be left like that. So many people don'thave that lifeline.
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