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 :confused:

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.

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

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.

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.

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.