FICA Tax Table

The FICA Tax table contains the current rates for withholding FICA (Social Security) or Medicare taxes and the current maximum amount of gross wages subject to the taxes, per employee and employer.

As federal guidelines change, you can change your FICA Tax records to match the new guidelines using the Human Resources > Reference Tables > Future Changes > FICA Tax Codes option. This option allows you to change table records without affecting live data prior to the effective date you define. For more information, refer to Future Tax Table Options.

The FICA Tax Table report's default file name is ficatax.rpt.

Menu Path: Human Resources > Reference Tables > Future Changes > FICA Tax Codes

Using FICA Tax Table Records

You need to define two records in the FICA Tax table: one for FICA and the other for Medicare. The code FI (for FICA only) is assigned to employees who are subject only to FICA, while the code FM (for both FICA and Medicare) is assigned to those subject to the two taxes.

During pay runs, these records enable the system to reference FICA and Medicare tax percentages, the maximum wages subject to taxation, and related accounting information. You must create separate records for both FICA and Medicare, even if one of the taxes does not apply to employees within your organization.

To enter changes to the FICA Tax table that will become effective on a future date, use the FICA Tax Codes option in the Future Changes menu from the Human Resources Reference Tables menu.

Note

If your account structure needs to be changed in accordance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), refer to the PowerSchool ERP Human Resources and Payroll Every Student Succeeds Act Fiscal Year-End Checklist for details on updating Deduction, Pay Code, and Tax tables with new year information.

The percentages and dollar amounts used in FICA and Medicare records are set each calendar year by the Social Security Administration. As a result, you should review these values at the start of a new year to ensure they are correct.

Field	Description
Tax Type	Setting determining if the record is for employees subject only to FICA tax or for those subject to both FICA and Medicare. Select: FI - FICA - to define the table record for employees subject only to FICA tax. FM - Medicare - to define the table record for employees subject to both FICA and Medicare taxes.
Employee Percent	Percentage rate of taxation for the employee’s share of the tax. Enter the percentage in decimal format (4.20% = 0.04200). Decimal/6,5
Employee Maximum	Maximum dollars-and-cents amount of gross wages subject to the tax. Decimal/10,2 If there is no maximum and therefore all wages are subject to the tax, enter 99999999.99 in this field.
Employer Percent	Tax percentage rate for the employer’s share of the tax. Enter the percentage in decimal format (4.20% = 0.04200) Decimal/6,5
Employer Maximum	Maximum amount of gross wages subject to the employer’s share of the tax, entered in dollars and cents. Decimal/10,2
Liability Account	Code of the liability withholding account for the FICA taxes taken from employees’ gross wages, as well as the portion paid by the employer.
Benefit Charging	Setting determining how charges for FICA/Medicare benefits are to be distributed in Fund Accounting’s Expenditures ledger. Select: A - All Pay Rates - Distributes charges to Budget Units from the employee’s Payrate Information page for both primary and secondary rates. P - Primary Pay Rate - Uses Budget Units from the employee’s Payrate Information page for the primary payrate only. O - Use Override Account - Uses the FringeBudget Units and Fringe Account entered in the FICA Tax table to identify the expense ledger to charge.
Fringe Budget Unit	Budget Unit for distributing the employer’s share of the FICA/Medicare tax. You can only access this field with the O - Use Override Account setting in the Benefit Charging field, in which case the field is required.
Fringe Account	Expense account number for distributing the employer’s share of the tax, as defined in Fund Accounting Profile’s expenditure range. If you selected O - Use Override Account as the Benefit Charging method, you must enter an account. In this case, the Budget Units and Fringe Account combination is validated against the Organization Chart. Enter an account from the Fund Accounting Profile’s expenditure range. Also, if the Fringe Budget Units field is used, you must enter a valid Budget Unit and Account combination.
Important	If you selected either A - All Pay Rates or P - Primary Pay Rates as the Benefit Charging methods and do not want to charge the benefit in Fund Accounting, enter 99999999 in the Fringe Account field. Keep in mind that with this setting, the system does not create a Detail Distribution record.
Encumber Benefits	Setting determining whether the system should encumber FICA and Medicare benefit charges. Select this field to encumber benefit amounts. Leave the field blank if you do not encumber benefit amounts.