I noticed on my pay stub this week that my FICA deduction nearly doubled. My employer's payment stayed the same. I am not a human resources guru or accounting wizard so I am not sure why this would have doubled now. Did some kind of law or taxation go into effect that I do not know of?
My guess is that when the rate for FICA was cut to 4.2 % from 6.2% in December your employer deducted 6.2% for a paycheck too long. So your last paycheck they deducted 2.2% to even it out. So this paycheck, your FICA rate is to the 4.2% that it will stay at for a year (or two years) before it reverts back to 6.2%
I know you said you're not a human resources guru, but do you have a human resources department at your work?
If they did deduct the higher rate for too long, why would I give more money instead of receiving back?
Yeah, sent an email to them but they aren't ever in any hurry to answer questions or maybe they just get too many.
Why do you even email, if it is a serious inquiry to [from] you? If it mattered that much, I would have just stepped in there until someone answered my question, or made sure I got a straight answer from someone via the phone. I wouldn't be waiting on email. Isn't there an online "management" interface where you can go see why this doubled? We have some payroll website at this here place where we can see when exactly it changed.
You may have missed the drop from 6.2 to 2.2 as the corrected their mistake, but noticed the rise back to 4.2. This is what happened to me.
Email is the official communication tool at my university. We are pretty much required to use it instead of in person or phone calls unless it is dire or we want to make an appointment. It sucks but it is the way it is. I don't consider this dire, the amount of money isn't great but I'd still like to figure out why it was taken.
The making work pay credit ended which is FICA and was replaced by a reduction in SS taxes. This is the explanation from our HR dept: When Congress passed the Making Work Pay Tax Credit, it was put in place for 2009 and 2010 only. It has now expired, which is why federal taxes are showing an increase as of January 1, 2011. Beginning with your next paycheck, the Social Security tax rate will go down from 6.2% to 4.2%, for 2011 only. This will help offset the ending of the Making Work Pay Tax Credit. Your federal taxes will remain in line with your first paycheck of the year, however, you will see your Social Security taxes decrease. Please keep in mind that if you decide to change your federal withholdings (to lower your amount being withheld) on your W-4, you could owe taxes at the end of 2011. Please consult your tax advisor.
That... is... AWESOME! You mean you can't stop someone in the hall to talk, ask a question, get them to say something nice about a project, then have them stop and turn around and put it a different way in email where they backstab you? Wished it was like that at MY work. People like turning crap around because you gave them one piece of information. I prefer email myself, but personal contact for very personal stuff like your situation... but... I wish I could say to someone in the hall: "Let's discuss this on email" in a way I didn't seem threatening.
