Is there a way to see what SS tax you paid every year on the ssa.gov website.

[Time2]

Is there a way to see what SS tax you paid every year on the ssa.gov website.
I'm not finding it. I want to calculated what I would have acrued if I had invested in the S&P 500 instead of SS. I do have what the tax rate percentage was from 1969 forward, but that seems an unneeded complication if the actual SS tax paid is on the ssa.gov website.

 

[Tadpole]

I don't know of a source of the taxes paid but the earnings used for calculation of the taxes for SS and Medicare were on the yearly statement as a list by year. I assume they still are. The tax rates since inception of SS are at:

FICA & SECA Tax Rates

So, if no one else knows of a direct source, you can calculate it. You need the earning used list especially if you have earning that exceeded the taxed amount.

 

[Tadpole]

Something else you might find useful is the SS Retirement Benefit calculator, AnyPIA. When I was planning for retirement the calculator would list the values of the adjusted earnings that are used for the calculation.

Social Security Retirement Benefit Calculation

Retirement Benefit Calculation

www.ssa.gov

When I used it, you had to hand enter the income values shown in the SSA statement. You can save these and continue to update them. It is a lot of work on the first run and easy afterwards.

 

[MissMolly]

I don't know of a source of the taxes paid but the earnings used for calculation of the taxes for SS and Medicare were on the yearly statement as a list by year. I assume they still are. The tax rates since inception of SS are at:

FICA & SECA Tax Rates

So, if no one else knows of a direct source, you can calculate it. You need the earning used list especially if you have earning that exceeded the taxed amount.

On that yearly statement it summarized taxes paid by you and by your employer. Somewhere near the bottom.

 

[Al18]

Your SS statements from 2021 and earlier listed the yearly amount you paid into SS

 

[Koolau]

Yeah, I think the old reports showed those numbers (IIRC.) Don't know about the site having that data, but haven't looked in a while. You could put on a big pot of coffee and call your SS office, I guess.

 

[Texas Proud]

As mentioned, my old paper ones have it by year... the one that is a PDF on the website (which, BTW I am holding in my hand) does not have individual years until 2006... they are grouped prior to that...

 

[GenXguy]

I have a downloaded statement in pdf format from 2021 that has each year "taxed earnings" listed as well as the total lifetime tax paid my myself and employer. I assume it's like the paper ones they had, which I have somewhere. My statements that I downloaded the last couple years only list years of "taxed earnings" individually back to 2006, grouped years prior to that, and then the lifetime totals.

 

[cathy63]

As mentioned, my old paper ones have it by year... the one that is a PDF on the website (which, BTW I am holding in my hand) does not have individual years until 2006... they are grouped prior to that...

The newer statements show the earnings that were taxed, but not the amount of tax paid, which is what Time2 is looking for. I don't think there's any way to get the itemized info on amounts you and your employer paid into SS, only the totals which are shown at the bottom of the statement.

You can still see your earnings for each year, including those prior to 2006, in two ways:
1) download your SS statement as XML instead of PDF.
2) click on Review your full earnings record now after logging in. You can even see info for specific employers by clicking on Take a closer look from the full earnings screen.
Neither one of these options includes the SS tax paid per year.

 

[Time2]

So just for fun, I used the FICA and SECA tax rate table Tadpole posted to know what the SS tax rate was for each year, my older SS statements of what I earned and an S&P growth calculator, S&P 500 Historical Return Calculator [With Dividends] – Of Dollars And Data to find what all my contributions would have grown to from 1969 to 2024. My son put it all in a spreadsheet and found I would have $1,298,520 if my SS payments were put into an S&P fund. This amount did not deduct any yearly maintenance fee from the portfolio. It also did not include the employer part of SS. If that was included the portfolio would be $2,597,040. I'm not disparaging SS, as it is more than a retirement program, it is also a disability policy and it protects your family if you die. But the $37,884 I will soon get from SS is only is only 1.45% of $2,597,040. I have wondered about this a long time, now I know.