Can someone tell me how to figure out what is being taken out of my check for social security, Medicare and federal withholdings? I live in New Hampshire and I pulled the numbers which I thought where right from the internet and did my math. However the math I did compared to my paycheck doesn’t match.

This is what I did.

According to my pay check I made 840.00 this week.

For federal withholdings (7.35) I took,
840.00 x 7.35 = 6174 -> move the decimal 2 = 61.74

For social security (6.20) I took,
840 x 6.20 = 5208 -> move the decimal 2 = 52.08

For Medicare (1.5) I took,
840 x 1.5 = 12.60 -> move the decimal 2 = 12.60

So then I added the three and got, 126.43

I then subtracted 126.43 from 840.00 = 713.57

Which to me means my check should be $713.57 and it’s actually $678.74.

Where am I going wrong? If someone could help me out I’d greatly appreciate it so I can better understand what’s being taken out and as well so I can better predict my paycheck. I don’t have anything else coming out of my pay check and if it helps I’m living in New Hampshire.

Thanks! – Alicia

retsoksirhc

How many exemptions are you claiming for your W2? If you claim 0 instead of 1, more money will be taken from the checks, but you will have a bigger refund (or have to pay less, depending on your situation) at the end of the year.

bEaUtIfUlbRuNeTtE

Do you have health insurance, dental or 401K taken out as well?

ebaines

Alicia:

We need some more info to help with the calculation.

1. Are you single, or married?
2. Is the $840 a weekly pay check, or bi-weekly, or monthly?
3. Did you take any other exemptions when you submitted your W4 to your employer?

You should receive a pay stub with your paycheck that shows the calculations from your employer - you didn't get one?

One correction in your math - the Medicare tax rate is 1.45%, not 1.5%.

Where did you get the 7.5% federal tax rate from? That seems too low.

ebaines

I think I figured it out. If you are single and claimed 2 exemptions on your W4, and are paid $840 weekly, then the tax withholding would be:

Federal: $97.00
SS: $52.08
Medicare: $12.18
Total: $161.26

Which makes your after tax pay $678.74

The federal tax withholding can can be determined by your employer either by using a formula or from a table lookup. In your case they seem to have used the table - see page 41 in the following site, and you'll see that for a weekly paid employee, single, with 2 exemptions the amount to withhold is $97.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15.pdf

If they had used the formula, the calculation would have been:

Pay: $840
Less 2 exemptions: 2*67.31 = 134.62
Net: $705.38
Tax: $82.95+ 0.25*(705.38 - 653) = $96.04.

The formula is shown on page 36.

silversage

The above calculation is pretty accurate.

If you don't want to calculate it on your own but still want to see a breakdown of your earnings and deductions try going to paycheck city They have an onlne salary calculator that is very easy to use.