Taxable Wage Base | Meaning and Definition

What is a Taxable Wage Base?

 A taxable wage base refers to the highest income amount on which specific types of taxes are based. That is due to the fact that certain types of taxes are not applicable beyond a particular threshold, unlike income taxes. It is also called taxable minimum and contribution and benefit base.

A taxable wage base functions by navigating a dollar amount over which a person can no longer be levied certain taxes like the OASDI tax. Medicare payroll taxes and other taxes are based on the unlimited income percentage. Thus, you will need to reimburse Medicare taxes regardless of your income. 

Different jurisdictions and types of taxes have varying taxable wage amounts. For instance, in the Social Security taxes, the majority of years, the Social Security Administration offers an adjustment that raises the maximum amount on which these taxes are established to a slight extent. 

A thorough understanding of the taxable wage base facilitates individuals to get a better idea of their tax liabilities. For example, if you are someone who is self-employed and you are working out your taxes. You would wish to learn if the taxable wage base thing influences the amount of self-employment taxes you need to pay. If you are well-off and perform very well and raise your earnings over $147,000/ year, you won’t have to reimburse the OASDI part of self-employment taxes for that portion of your earnings.

Taxable wage bases implement caps on the unemployment insurance taxes and Social Security Taxes, compared to uncapped taxes like Medicare taxes.