What FICA means
FICA stands for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act. For employees, it normally includes Social Security tax and Medicare tax. These payroll taxes are separate from federal income tax, which is why your paycheck can still have sizeable deductions even when your federal withholding feels modest.
Social Security is capped
Social Security tax does not apply to every dollar forever. It applies up to the annual wage base. Once wages go above that level, the Social Security piece stops growing. This matters most for higher earners because take-home pay can improve later in the year after the cap is reached.
Medicare has no wage cap
Medicare applies to all wages, and some higher earners also face an additional Medicare tax on income above the threshold. That means Medicare continues to matter even after Social Security stops increasing.
Why FICA matters at middle incomes too
At salaries like 40k, 60k, 75k, and 100k, FICA can remove a meaningful chunk of annual pay. People often underestimate it because they mentally combine everything under the vague label of tax. Breaking it out separately helps you understand why no-tax states are not zero-tax states.
How TuBoost handles FICA
TuBoost applies Social Security up to the annual wage base and calculates Medicare separately. That gives a cleaner baseline than flat-rate calculators that simply multiply gross salary by one made-up deduction percentage.