Word: fica
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...feel shunned, especially at social events like "coffee breaks," "going out for coffee" or "drinking coffee." So when the government decided to spend $250,000 on caffeinated-gum research, I was thrilled. Instead of money wasted on defense (Hello? We haven't been invaded since 1812) or that unfinished FICA project I keep reading about on my pay stub, this would help someone with a real problem. Soon I too could awake groggy and cranky, pull out a couple of sticks of gum, read the paper and then deal with the wife and kids. As I saw it, caffeinated...
...Rising FICA burden. Beginning this year, you will pay Social Security tax on the first $72,600 you earn--up from the $68,400 threshold in 1998. That's a 6.1% hike, a rate that is roughly double the pay increase most wage earners will see. For anyone whose income exceeds that higher level, it means an extra $260.40 a year owed to the feds. Tip: earnings stashed in a flexible-spending account at work are exempt from FICA withholding. In a two-earner household, it may pay for the lower earner to fund the account...
...American government does or will take money from your paycheck in essentially two different ways. One way is through an income tax which is used for general expenditures like the military, education and highways. The other is through the Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) tax, which is used to fund Social Security and Medicare. Employers and employees each pay 7.65 percent of an employee's earnings in FICA taxes. In other words, if you make $10,000 a year, your employer pays $765 in FICA taxes and you pay $765 in FICA taxes. FICA taxes are 7.65 percent for everyone...
...money that Social Security takes in through FICA taxes exceeds what it pays out in benefits. This year alone, Social Security's surplus will be about $100 billion. That money is held in a trust fund; the value of that fund now exceeds $500 billion. However, because the government spends more on other programs that it takes in, it "borrows" from the Social Security trust fund. For example, this year the government will spend about $50 billion more than it has, but it will borrow Social Security's $100 billion surplus...
...according to moderate estimates, FICA taxes will not cover expected outlays, and Social Security will have to dip into its trust fund (meaning that the rest of the government will have to pay Social Security back). By about 2029, that fund will be depleted and Social Security will only have the money to pay out 75 percent of expected benefits. This is the core of the Social Security problem...