Medicare tax on your paycheck
1.45% of all wages, with an additional 0.9% over $200,000.
Medicare tax funds the federal Medicare program. The base employee rate is 1.45% of all wages with no wage base limit. An Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% applies to wages above $200,000 in a calendar year (employer withholding threshold).
How it usually appears
Category: mandatory
Aliases on a stub: MED, Medicare
Tax interaction
- Reduces federal taxable wages: No
- Reduces FICA wages: No
- Reduces state taxable wages: Usually no
Official sources
- IRS Topic 751 — Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates — IRS · 2025 · last verified 2025-04-01
- IRS — Questions and Answers for the Additional Medicare Tax — IRS · 2025 · last verified 2025-04-01
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