The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax includes two separate taxes. One is the Social Security tax and the other is the Medicare tax. Different rates of tax apply for each of these.

For 1999 the Social Security tax rate is 6.2 %, which applies to the first $72,600 of an employee's wages paid by each employer. The Medicare tax rate is 1.45 %, which applies to all of the employee's wages.

For more information, see Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax. Publications can be downloaded from this site, or ordered by calling 1-800-829-3676.

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