My Employer W2 shows NO social Security and Medicare

[ketanmshah]

Hello All,

My Employer (One of the Top 3 Financial Institution in USA) sent me my 2019 W2 and only to realize that they have not cut any Social Security and/or Medicare. I got curious and looked at my Salary (paycheck) only to realize that it doesnt deduct SS or Medicare and I am not sure why(as I dont remember asking my Employer to not do it). For last 4 years 2016,17 ,18 and 19 my Social Security is showing 0. 

I was not even aware of it and all these years I have been filling Married filling Jointly. I am at total confusion as to what we can do here to fix it and also not sure why this issue happened and is it Employers fault and should the employer fix it?

Can someone please help me understand as to why social security and Medicare wont be cut? My salary is 80K and I dnt think thats the criteria for it. I am in no way capability to pay IRS any of the last 4 years social security or medicare, what are my options here? Does the Employer need to fix it?

Appreciate your help.

[TomD8]

Is Statutory Employee checked in Box 13 of your W-2?  Are you a non-U.S. citizen?  If so, what is your visa status?

[ketanmshah]

Thank you for you response, no the BOX 13 has RETIREMENT PLAN checked.

Attached below is my W2 (with sensitive info blocked)

[chris.hodgdon]

Hmm that in interesting.  I work for a public school district and on my W2 they do Box 1 Wage - Box 2 Federal Income Tax Withheld and Box 5 Medicare Wages - Box 6 Medicare withheld, but they don't do Social Security since we pay into our states Teacher Retirement Fund, which, on box 13 is marked as a Retirement Plan.

So using mine as an example, I can see then not withholding Social Security, since you are paying into a retirement plan, but not sure why they would not pull for Medicare. 

Now from past experience, you are going to be responsible for a portion of anything the IRS say is owe.

"Both employer and employee hold the responsibility for collecting and remitting withholding taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). For the most part, the employer withholds these taxes on behalf of their employees, but in cases where an employer does not do this, or where an employee is self-employed, it is the responsibility of the employee to pay these withholding taxes."

https://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigation/employer-and-employee-responsibilities-employm...

[TomD8]

@ketanmshah — My first step would be to talk to your employer’s payroll department and ask why they’re not withholding SS/Medicare taxes.

[ketanmshah]

Thank you,

[ketanmshah]

Thank you @TomD8 .

I have reached out to them and waiting fro their response (unfrotunately their SLA is 7 days :( and I am just worried if they ask me to pay for it and right now due to other obligations going to be tough to manage it for so many years).

[Sephira26]

Hi there

Did you ever get an answer to your question about the social security?

[MarilynG1]

There are 15 states (AK, CA, CO, CT, IL, LA, MA, ME, MO, NV, OH, TX) in which teachers do not pay in to Social Security, so you will not see Social Security withheld on the teacher’s W-2.  Instead, teachers in those states pay in to a Teacher’s Retirement System, which will show up elsewhere on the W-2 often in box 12 or box 14.

There are three states which have varying degrees of participation in SS for teachers, depending on school districts—GA, KY, and RI.

If this applies, just enter your W-2 as issued.  If not, you could contact your payroll department to ask about this.

@Sephira26