MFJ & we both work. SS tax withheld, do we EACH owe taxes on our incomes up to the cap, or does it cap out with our COMBINED income?

[Anonymous]

MFJ and we both work. For our SS tax withheld, do we EACH owe taxes on our individual incomes up to the $137,700 cap, or does it cap out with our COMBINED income? My husband capped out, but I did not, so we've paid more than the $8537.40 max between the 2 of us...Not sure if SS tax withheld applies to each of us individually or if it is a combined cap for filers filing MFJ.  Thank you!

[SweetieJean]

The cap applies to each of you separately.  If TT says you've exceeded, make sure you are assigning each W-2, etc to the correct person.

[xmasbaby0 · Accepted solution]

You EACH have a cap.   Be very careful with this.   Make sure that you have set up your joint return carefully and that when you enter your income you are entering under the correct spouse's name.   If you make a mistake and enter it all under only one spouse, it inflates your refund because the IRS thinks one of you had more than the max withheld ----then in a year or two you get a nasty letter demanding the refund and penalties

 2020  $8537.40   Is the maximum amount that ONE person should show as the SS withheld from all of their W-2-s ---- if more is withheld from ONE person's income then it is added to your refund.

[Peter44 · Accepted solution]

The social security taxes and the limits that you cited apply to each of you, separately, even though you are filing jointly. One thing that you did not make clear is whether either of you is self-employed, and if so, do you two work together in the business. If you do work together, then the income is split between the two of you and the social security tax is calculated on each of your incomes.