2026 Social Security & Payroll Tax (FICA) Facts

The COLA raises benefits; the wage base is the most of your earnings subject to the 6.2% Social Security tax (Medicare has no cap).

Employees and employers each pay half; the self-employed pay both halves. The Social Security portion stops at the wage base; Medicare applies to all earnings.

The maximum assumes 35 years at the taxable maximum. Each year you delay past full retirement age (FRA) adds about 8% up to age 70; claiming at 62 cuts the benefit roughly 30%.

Full retirement age (FRA) is when you receive 100% of your benefit. Claiming at 62 cuts it by about 25–30% (5⁄9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months, then 5⁄12 of 1%); delaying past FRA adds 8% a year until 70.

You need 40 credits — about 10 years of work — to qualify for retirement benefits. You can earn up to four credits a year: in 2026 one credit takes $1,890 of earnings, so $7,560 earns the maximum four (in 2025 it was $1,810 per credit, $7,240 for four).

A spouse can claim up to 50% of the higher earner's full benefit (PIA) — valuable when one spouse earned far less. You get the full 50% only by claiming at your own full retirement age; claiming at 62 cuts it to about 32.5%. You generally must be 62+, and the higher earner must have already filed.

A divorced spouse can claim on an ex's record if the marriage lasted at least 10 years, you are currently unmarried, and you are 62 or older — and it does not reduce the ex's benefit or their current spouse's.

Note "deemed filing": anyone born after January 1, 1954 who files is treated as claiming their own and any spousal benefit at once, so the old trick of taking only spousal while letting your own grow no longer works for them.

A widow or widower can receive up to 100% of the deceased worker's benefit — starting as early as age 60 (50 if disabled) at a reduced amount, or the full amount at full retirement age. A surviving divorced spouse can qualify too if the marriage lasted at least 10 years.

You can't collect your own retirement benefit and a survivor benefit at the same time — you get the larger of the two — so many widow(er)s claim one first and switch to the other later to maximize the total.

If you claim before FRA and keep working, some benefits are temporarily withheld above these limits. Withheld benefits are not lost — your monthly amount is recalculated upward once you reach FRA.

Possibly. Up to 85% of your benefit can be taxable depending on your "combined income" (AGI + nontaxable interest + half your benefit). The thresholds — $25,000/$34,000 for single filers and $32,000/$44,000 for joint filers — are not indexed, so more retirees cross them each year.

FICA — the Federal Insurance Contributions Act — is the payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare. It is the 7.65% line on your paycheck (6.2% + 1.45%), matched by your employer. The self-employed pay the combined 15.3% as self-employment tax but deduct half. See your paycheck split with the payroll deductions calculator.