Obamacare Withholding

[Golden Rocket]

All of us are aware that the so-called extra "Medicare" tax in the "Other Taxes" section of the tax return is not really Medicare. The money raised by this new tax simply goes into the general fund and does not fund Medicare.

Question: If a highly paid individual has 0.9% withheld from his paycheck for this thing, where will the withholding appear on his year-end W-2?
a) Medicare Withheld
b) FIT Withheld
c) Somewhere else

By the way, if it becomes "medicare withheld" he will not get credit for paying in at year-end. In such a case, the software would be doubling up if it calculated another 0.9% in "other taxes".

[Burke]

Federal Income Tax Withholding, Box 2.

[TaxGuyBill]

It goes in box 6 of the W-2.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw2w3.pdf#page=16

[TaxGuyBill]

All of us are aware that the so-called extra "Medicare" tax in the "Other Taxes" section of the tax return is not really Medicare. The money raised by this new tax simply goes into the general fund and does not fund Medicare.

???

Where did you get that idea? Everything that I've read shows that it is the same as the regular Medicare taxes.

https://www.medicare.gov/about-us/how-medicare-is-funded/medicare-funding.html

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/3101

However, you are probably right about the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax. That may not be specifically earmarked for Medicare.

[kathyc2]

All of us are aware that the so-called extra "Medicare" tax in the "Other Taxes" section of the tax return is not really Medicare. The money raised by this new tax simply goes into the general fund and does not fund Medicare.

Question: If a highly paid individual has 0.9% withheld from his paycheck for this thing, where will the withholding appear on his year-end W-2?
a) Medicare Withheld
b) FIT Withheld
c) Somewhere else

By the way, if it becomes "medicare withheld" he will not get credit for paying in at year-end. In such a case, the software would be doubling up if it calculated another 0.9% in "other taxes".

The additional tax withheld will show in box 6- Medicare withholding.
On the tax return the additional tax will show on line 62 flowing from form 8959.
The "extra" Medicare withheld should also be included on line 64 "federal tax withheld from W-2", so it is not "double dipping".

It is handled this way since the total amount may not be accurately calculated from W-2. Filing status, spouse wages etc, will affect the total.

The 1.45% payroll tax only funds part A of Medicare. Parts B & D are funded by the Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund which Congress funds from general funds. B & D combined are roughly the same cost to gov't as A, and are funded ~ 25% from premiums and 75% from general funds.

[Bees Knees]

The name of a tax is meaningless. All taxes (income, social security, Medicare, excise taxes, highway taxes, etc. etc. etc.) go into the same checkbook. The government only has one bank account and a printing press in the basement when that account gets overdrawn.

[JohnH]

Printing press?
I'm shocked!

And all this time I was thinking the government went out and got a second job when the checkbook ran dry.

[kathyc2]

The name of a tax is meaningless. All taxes (income, social security, Medicare, excise taxes, highway taxes, etc. etc. etc.) go into the same checkbook. The government only has one bank account and a printing press in the basement when that account gets overdrawn.

Yeah, that's not really how it works. The number of bank accounts is irrelevant. Each trust fund has its own set of "books" and financial statements. They are readily available online if you actually have an interest in how the trust funds and general funds interact with each other.

[Bees Knees]

Yeah, that's not really how it works. The number of bank accounts is irrelevant. Each trust fund has its own set of "books" and financial statements. They are readily available online if you actually have an interest in how the trust funds and general funds interact with each other.

Trust funds are irrelevant when money is borrowed (stolen) from them to pay for other things and there is never a surplus to pay back all those IOUs.

[David1980]

By the way, if it becomes "medicare withheld" he will not get credit for paying in at year-end. In such a case, the software would be doubling up if it calculated another 0.9% in "other taxes".

Part V of the 8959 is the Withholding Reconciliation which sorts that out. The amount of Medicare tax withheld on the W-2 that is more than 1.45% ends up on the federal income tax withholding line on the 1040.