Tax Cut Help for the Math Challenged

published 21 December 2010

What does a drop from 6.2% to 4.2% in the tax that pays for Social Security mean to your paychecks?

It’s really pretty simple. Take your gross pay, reduce it by the amount you divert to flexible spending plans for medical and/or child care costs (since that money isn’t hit by the payroll tax) and multiply the result by 0.02. That will tell you how much your paycheck will go up starting in January.

Don’t trust yourself (or don’t want to spend the time) to do the math yourself? Then just use our new calculator: What the 2011 Tax Cut Is Worth to You.

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The table below will give you quick look at what the payroll tax change -- part of the deal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts -- is worth at various salary levels. Once annual pay passes $106,800, the value of the tax cut stops rising. That’s because the part of the payroll tax that pays for Social Security applies only to the first $106,800 of income.

McCormally retired in 2018 after more than 40 years at Kiplinger. He joined Kiplinger in 1977 as a reporter specializing in taxes, retirement, credit and other personal finance issues. He is the author and editor of many books, helped develop and improve popular tax-preparation software programs, and has written and appeared in several educational videos. In 2005, he was named Editorial Director of The Kiplinger Washington Editors, responsible for overseeing all of our publications and Web site. At the time, Editor in Chief Knight Kiplinger called McCormally "the watchdog of editorial quality, integrity and fairness in all that we do." In 2015, Kevin was named Chief Content Officer and Senior Vice President.