- news
- INDIVIDUALS
Social Security wage base set for 2019
Please note: This item is from our archives and was published in 2018. It is provided for historical reference. The content may be out of date and links may no longer function.
Related
Treasury posts preliminary list of jobs eligible for no tax on tips
Tax strategies for highly appreciated undeveloped land
Draft 2026 Form W-2 includes boxes and codes for tips and overtime
The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that the maximum amount of wages subject to the old age, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI) tax will increase to $132,900 for 2019. The OASDI tax rate is 6.2%, so an employee with wages up to or above the maximum in 2019 would pay $8,239.80 in tax and the employer would pay an equal amount. Self-employed individuals pay tax at a 12.4% rate up to the limit. The 2018 wage base is $128,400, for a $7,960.80 maximum amount of OASDI tax.
The Medicare hospital insurance tax of 1.45% each for employees and employers, or 2.9% for the self-employed, has no wage limit.
The SSA also announced that recipients of Social Security benefits would get a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment and that the earnings test for the amount of income that benefit recipients can receive without their benefits being reduced each year is $17,640 before full retirement age, and the limit taxpayers can earn in the year they reach full retirement age is $46,920.
— Sally P. Schreiber, J.D., (Sally.Schreiber@aicpa-cima.com) is a Tax Adviser senior editor.