this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
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- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
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The qualifier you put under here, which is not in your original comment, is if you're self-employed. What if you aren't? (Let's ignore the question of if you should be at that income.)
It is a qualifier. The tax code doesn’t exactly make sense but I’d expect if self-employed doesn’t have to contribute why would an employee. Self employed people have to pay both the employer and employee portion, while employees only pay to employee part.
Okay, so you're talking about something where you have the bare minimum of knowledge. That's cool, this is the i telnet after all. Not being an American, I haven't spent a lot of time reading their tax laws or forms. I dont know if that applies to you. But I try to be more informed if I'm going to argue on the internet, and it appears SS is a marginal tax just like many others. In this case, it's a flat tax up to $184.5k this year, and 0 for income above that amount. So your initial point was also wrong.
I have more than the bare amount of knowledge. I correctly conveyed actual tax code for the us. My initial point was not wrong in the slightest and I linked to actual irs tax forms to prove it. You are misinformed and shouldn’t try correcting people on items you clearly don’t understand.
You said if you made over $184k you would pay $0 into SS. In fact you would pay over $20k. How is that correct?
I already posted the IRS form that demonstrates that fact.
There is a wrinkle that during the year until your received income actually exceeds the max you pay in. After that though the IRS will return the money when you file.
Have you heard of Schedule C? It's mentioned at the bottom of page 9 in the pdf you linked. But please, do keep doubling down.
Unlike you I can actually read and follow the basic math steps in calculating the tax for social security. If income is above the max, per page 9, then the social security tax is 0. Goodbye.
You misread the IRS form that you think demonstrates that. It is not doing anything of the sort.
Then prove it liar.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/retirement/2025/06/27/do-billionaires-collect-social-security/84382812007/
https://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/social-security/can-millionaires-billionaires-collect-social-security/
https://www.fool.com/retirement/2026/02/11/do-billionaires-still-collect-social-security-the/
https://daytonsocialsecurityplanning.com/2025/08/10/how-social-security-benefits-work-if-you-are-self-employed/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Wage_Base
Your claim arises not from a calculation on how much social security tax can be claimed. It comes from misreading a worksheet calculating deductions from self employment tax. You're seeing a "zero" entry on one line of that worksheet and claiming it means you don't pay social security taxes. You don't seem to realize that the deduction calculates how much social security tax you pay, and increases the deduction based on that amount.
When you reach $184,500 of income, you do not pay any additional social security tax. You don't pay any social security tax on the additional income above $184,500. You do pay social security tax on the income up to and including $184,500.
If you follow the worksheet, it will only allow you to deduct the amount of social security tax you actually pay, which means you are not allowed to deduct any additional social security tax on income over $184,500.
It isn’t an additional tax document. If y’all are unable to understand reality I am not wasting more time on you. Believe all the lies you want.