The current tax rate for social security is 6.2% for the employer and 6.2% for the employee, or 12.4% in total. The current Medicare rate is 1.45% for the employer and 1.45% for the employee, or 2.9% in total. Estimated payments are tax payments that you make every quarter on income that the employer is not required to withhold taxes from. However, the IRS helps taxpayers by offering software and a worksheet for calculating Social Security tax liability.
Even after you've stopped working, you may have to file a tax return and pay income tax and, surprisingly, you may also have to include some of your Social Security benefits as taxable income on your return. If you prefer to pay more exact withholding, you can choose to file estimated tax payments instead of having the SSA withhold taxes. Because you pay taxes on money before contributing it to your Roth IRA, you won't pay any taxes when you withdraw your contributions. If your combined income exceeds a certain limit (the IRS calls this limit the base amount), you'll have to pay at least some taxes.
The easiest way to keep your Social Security benefits free of income tax is to keep your total combined income below your tax threshold. You can use this benefit statement when you complete your federal income tax return to find out if your benefits are taxable. In other words, most people who receive Social Security benefits pay income taxes up to half or even 85% of that money, because their combined income from Social Security and other sources places them above the very low thresholds for the taxes to take effect. The IRS has a worksheet that can be used to calculate the total income taxes due if you receive Social Security benefits.
