Social Security Dropped to 4.2%

Just a heads up, if you don't already know, but your FICA (Social Security dropped from 6.2% to 4.2% for 2011. It was a late release so be sure to remind your Payroll Department to implement the change if they have not already done so.

If they fail to make the change on your first paycheck the IRS is giving employers until January 31, 2011 to make the correction and issue any over withholdings by no later than March 31, 2011.

This is a great cut back. An employee making $50,000 per year will see an adjusted increase in pay of $1000.

Congress still has not voted on your Withholding Tax so the percentage brackets are the same until further notice.

If it were me I would put this additional money aside for the what if, when the government decides further action. 

 

 

Let's get it down to 0%.

they are still paying out benefits at the normal rate

YAY more deficit spending to fund ponzi schemes

I already bumped up my 401K contribution by 2%

I missed this was even in the works.

1. How is this justified if benefits aren't reduced at all???? We don't have the money at 6.2% to pay out...

2. Why only the worker's portion of SS?  I am a very small business, but would have LOVED to see my portion reduced, but it's not happening...

Agreed. Stop this nonsense of force contribution of money into something that eventually will not exist. Let me take that money and invest it into my 401k or Roth IRA already.

Now we are gonna see a hiring explosion like never seen before

 

Tell me about it...virtually every software company that makes Payroll Modules has to change the format to accommodate this....I can tell you that our software doesn't even have a field to do this...I'm not sure why they didn't just pass the 2% decrease on to the employers as well...

Hell yeah!  Book, do you know what FICA cap will be in 2011?

From the reading I did, I don't think it changes.  Still 106,800 I believe...

So I save $2,136 my gambling roll just went up.

Terrible idea.

The program is teetering to enter the red and we drop the rate.

How about start cutting benefits to high net worth/income retirees?

Wall, but if it's gonna eventually gonna be insolvent, why should people have to continue to contribute to it. Why can't an individual do with what they want in terms of investing their retirement account. I've been working for 15 straight years and it makes me sick to my stomach to hear that SS# money most likely will not be around for me when I retire. So basically the government was taking my hard earned money out of my check just so people that contributed into it earlier can retire off that money? I don't think so. I'm glad I invested into a 401k and Roth IRA right off the bat, cuz this SS is a joke. I just wish I never had to contribute to it in the first place and put that money into my current investment vehicles.

Yea the cap stayed the same at $106, 800

 

What's messed up is the fact that virtually everyone's SUI Rate went up to the States maximum....

We were at 3.5% and it went all the way up to the max of 6.2% in California......We are in other states, but the rate increases were not as drastic...

So they are saving money for the employee's, but the employers are getting screwed every which way.....We had a surplus in our CA SUI reserve account entering into 2010 of about 200-300k and now it is in a deficit of 226k....all those Unemployment extensions killed us thus raising our rate just in CA by 2.7% on every $7,000 in wages....that's an increase of $189 for every employee at just over 5000 employees we have just in CA....The extension upon extension of Unemployment Benefits is going to kill us.....And who knows what our Corporate Taxes will be after all the shit the govt did to fuck us...

Oh and in California the SDI was raised from 1.1% to 1.2% for 2011, but the wage base stayed the same at $93,316.....this of course is an employee tax, but you can see what is going on here....

I agree it makes no sense to cut the rate however taking from those that have money and paid in their whole working life isn't fair.  The real problem is all these welfare recipients faking injuries and getting SS disability for life.  Go after the  scammers not those that work and pay into the system.
My wife works at a PT clinic all she deals with are 18 yr old minorities trying to get on permanent disability that aren't even injured.  Once they are treated she'll say now you are better you can go to college or get back to work . They laugh at her and say I'm on permanent disability I don't have to work. 
Meanwhile my Mom pays in her whole life gets ALS can't work, has medical bills bankrupting us and they won't her a penny because they say it's terminal.  Wouldn't you guess the color of the person making the decision on her SS benefits  YES WE CAN!!!! YES WE CAN!!!!  That's our country reward those that don't work and screw those that work hard their whole life.

You rarely hear about this stuff though.  My rate went up slightly, but know other owners who are really feeling the pinch.  But of course all businesses and business owners are rolling in the money, so fuck all of them...

Well the answer is to slow the payments going out, which means raising the retirement age and phasing out at income levels.

Ive said this before that if I were in charge it would start to be phased out at the median income level for the year, why we give a benefit to people who arent working that are making more than the people who ARE working makes no sense to me.

If nothing else, the benefit should be phased out at the stop contribution level..so if you are making 106k a year or whatever the number is, the benefit starts being phased.

The only way this survives is if the people who paid less in start taking so much. We didnt raise the rate for decades yet there are these inflation based COLA increases?

Increase the retirement age, phase out and the program will continue to be around..also separate the funds from the general fund, dont allow the money to be co-mingled.

So true that this is the misconception out there....Sad really....our business is predicated on employers and their needs....if they aren't in business or their business is failing so is our services....I hate that everyone thinks that because you own a business that you must be filthy rich....so not the case and I see many owners throughout our business who are on our payroll and I have seen their salaries dip, as well as their contribution to Health Benefits....the economy screwed everyone except those that were rich to begin with that could afford to take a hit for a few years, but they are definitely in the minority here...

B I N G O.....

this is and has been the problem....spending and taking funds that don't belong to that perticular program....

this 2% decrease is just another example of what will have to happen to correct the situation....in order to compensate for the 2% decrease in FICA they will need to get the money from somewhere else....how are they going to do this? They aren't...they are just borrowing from borrowed money already.....they have had two hands and both feet in the cookie jar for far too long to correct the problem....this simply has no fix without printing more money cause they most certainly will not do what is necessary to correct it....starting with their own pension programs and continued salaries these clowns make after serving... 

Social Security is underfunded by $14 TRILLION Dollars. The petty $1,000 each $50K earner will save this year will be felt when the program becomes insolvent by the time you retire, in part due to cut-backs in contributions like these.

You know what, I will take my chances that the $1,000 in my pocket now will serve me much better than if I needed to pay it into this giant Ponzi scheme.  Don't kid yourself, unless you are about 50, you aren't seeing a dime of this money anways

That would have an impact on UAW retirees and others of the sort.  Those people will have none of that.

I guess my other question is, where did this even come from.  Half the people don't even know what their FICA goes to.  A month ago, extending the tax cuts was a huge deal because our gubbiment needed the revenue, now they slash this?

 

BECAUSE. WE. TOOK. THEIR. FUCKING. MONEY. TO. BEGIN. WITH.