How to Pay FICA Taxes: Rates, Deposits, and Penalties

To pay FICA taxes as an employer, you withhold 7.65% from each employee’s paycheck (6.2% Social Security plus 1.45% Medicare), add a matching 7.65% from the business, and deposit the combined amount electronically through EFTPS on either a monthly or semi-weekly schedule set by your prior tax history. If you’re self-employed, you pay the full 15.3% yourself as SECA tax in four quarterly installments using Form 1040-ES. For 2026, Social Security tax stops once wages cross $184,500; Medicare has no cap.¹

The Rates You’re Actually Paying

FICA is 15.3% total, split evenly between employer and employee in a W-2 arrangement. Each side pays 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare, adding up to 7.65% apiece.² The employer withholds the employee’s share from each paycheck and adds its own match.

The 6.2% Social Security portion only applies to wages up to the annual wage base — $184,500 for 2026.¹ Once an employee’s year-to-date pay hits that cap, both your withholding and your match for Social Security stop for the rest of the year. Medicare keeps applying to every dollar.

Once an employee’s pay for the year passes $200,000, you also start withholding an Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% from their wages. There’s no employer match on this piece, and you can’t stop withholding it even if the employee expects to fall under the joint-filer threshold when they file their personal return.³

How Employers Deposit FICA

All federal employment tax deposits must be made electronically.⁴ The standard route is the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). You can also use IRS Direct Pay for businesses, an ACH credit through your bank, or a payroll provider that handles deposits for you.

Enrolling in EFTPS takes your EIN and business bank account details. The IRS mails a PIN to your business address to verify enrollment. Once you’re set up, you schedule each deposit online or by phone, and the system pulls the funds on the date you specify. To count as timely, payments have to be scheduled by 8:00 p.m. Eastern the day before the due date.⁵

Monthly or Semi-Weekly Schedule

Your deposit schedule depends on your lookback period — for Form 941 filers, the four quarters ending the previous June 30. If total employment taxes in that period were $50,000 or less, you deposit monthly, with each month’s taxes due by the 15th of the following month. Over $50,000 and you’re on the semi-weekly schedule.⁶

Semi-weekly deposit deadlines follow your payroll dates:

Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday paydays: deposit due the following Wednesday.
Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday paydays: deposit due the following Friday.

New employers have no lookback history, so the IRS treats their prior liability as zero and starts them on the monthly schedule for at least the first calendar year.⁷

The $100,000 Next-Day Rule

If your tax liability reaches $100,000 or more on any single day, the normal schedules don’t apply. You deposit by the next business day, and you’re automatically bumped to semi-weekly status for the rest of that calendar year and all of the next. Large bonus runs and commission payrolls are the usual triggers.

How Employers Report FICA

You report FICA and withheld income taxes quarterly on Form 941, which reconciles wages paid, employee withholding, your matching contribution, and every deposit you made during the quarter.⁸ The form has a specific line for Additional Medicare Tax withheld from high earners.

Form 941 is due by the last day of the month after each quarter ends: April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. If a due date lands on a weekend or legal holiday, it shifts to the next business day. If you deposited all your taxes on time and in full for the quarter, you get an extra 10 days to file.⁹

If your total annual liability for Social Security, Medicare, and withheld income tax is $1,000 or less, you may qualify to file Form 944 once a year instead of Form 941 quarterly.¹⁰ The IRS typically notifies eligible employers; you can also request the switch by contacting the IRS before the calendar year begins.

By January 31 each year, you also furnish a Form W-2 to each employee and file copies with the Social Security Administration.¹¹ Paper filers include a Form W-3 as the transmittal; the SSA’s Business Services Online system generates W-3 data automatically when you e-file.¹² The IRS cross-checks your four 941s against the annual W-2 totals, so mismatches produce notices.

Fixing a Mistake

To correct an over- or under-reported Form 941, file Form 941-X, one per quarter being corrected. For under-reported tax, file the correction by the end of the quarter in which you find the error and pay the balance with it to stop interest. For over-reported tax, you can either apply the credit to a future quarter or file a refund claim. The general window is three years from the date the original 941 was filed or two years from the date the tax was paid, whichever is later.¹³

How Self-Employed People Pay

Sole proprietors, partners, and independent contractors pay the full 15.3% themselves under SECA — 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare.¹⁴ You owe the tax once your net earnings from self-employment reach $400 for the year.¹⁵

SECA isn’t calculated on your full net profit. You multiply net earnings by 92.35% first, mirroring the deduction W-2 employers get on their share. That reduced figure is the base for the 15.3%.¹⁶ The $184,500 Social Security cap applies here too, so once 92.35% of your net earnings crosses the wage base, the 12.4% Social Security portion stops. The 2.9% Medicare portion keeps going, and the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax kicks in above the same filing-status thresholds that apply to wage earners. You also deduct half of your total SECA tax when calculating adjusted gross income on Form 1040, which reduces your income tax but not the SECA itself.

Four Estimated Payments a Year

You pay SECA through the federal estimated tax system, combining it with your estimated income tax and sending four installments using Form 1040-ES.¹⁷ The 2026 dates:

1st payment: April 15, 2026
2nd payment: June 15, 2026
3rd payment: September 15, 2026
4th payment: January 15, 2027

You can skip the January 15 payment if you file your 2026 return by February 1, 2027, and pay the full balance with it.¹⁸ Weekend and holiday due dates shift to the next business day.

IRS Direct Pay pulls funds from your checking or savings account at no cost.¹⁹ EFTPS works for individuals too and lets you schedule payments ahead and see your history. You can also mail a check with the 1040-ES vouchers, though electronic methods give you a confirmation record.

At tax time, net profit from Schedule C carries to Schedule SE, which applies the 92.35% multiplier and the 15.3% rate. The result moves to Form 1040 and gets added to your income tax. If your estimated payments exceeded what you owe, you get a refund; if they fell short, you pay the difference when filing.¹⁶

Avoiding an Underpayment Penalty

The IRS charges an underpayment penalty if your installments fall short during the year. You avoid it by meeting any one of three tests:

Total tax due after withholding and credits is under $1,000.
Your payments and withholding cover at least 90% of the current year’s tax.
Your payments equal at least 100% of last year’s total tax (110% if your prior-year AGI was over $150,000, or $75,000 if married filing separately).

The 110% figure is what catches self-employed filers with rising income: if you anchor to it, you’re protected even when current-year payments come in under 90%.²⁰

Household Employers Pay Differently

If you pay a nanny, housekeeper, or similar worker $3,000 or more in cash wages during 2026, FICA applies. You withhold the employee’s 7.65% and pay your own 7.65% match. Under $3,000 for the year, no FICA obligation applies.²¹ Household employers don’t file Form 941. Instead, you report and pay the employment taxes once a year on Schedule H, attached to your personal Form 1040. You still give the worker a W-2 by January 31.

What Late or Missed Payments Cost

The IRS penalizes late deposits on a sliding scale:

1 to 5 days late: 2% of the unpaid amount
6 to 15 days late: 5%
16 or more days late: 10%
After an IRS notice demanding payment: 15%

The tiers don’t stack. A deposit 10 days late costs 5%, not 7%. Using an unauthorized deposit method, or failing to deposit electronically when required, also triggers a 10% penalty.²²

Filing Form 941 late runs a separate 5% of unpaid tax per month or partial month, capped at 25%. If you also owe a late-payment penalty (0.5% per month), the late-filing penalty is reduced by the late-payment amount so the same period isn’t hit twice.²³

The Trust Fund Recovery Penalty

The money you withhold from employee paychecks is held in trust for the government. If those withheld amounts don’t get deposited, the IRS can assess the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty against any individual who was responsible for the deposits and willfully failed to make them. The penalty equals 100% of the unpaid trust fund amount, plus interest.²⁴

A “responsible person” can be a corporate officer, a partner, a sole proprietor, or an employee with authority over business finances. “Willful” doesn’t require intent to defraud — choosing to pay rent or vendors instead of depositing payroll taxes qualifies. The liability follows the individual personally, even if the business closes or files for bankruptcy.

Records to Keep

Employers keep all employment tax records for at least four years after filing the fourth-quarter return for the year. That covers employee names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of employment, wage amounts, W-4 copies, deposit dates and amounts with EFTPS confirmation numbers, and records of any fringe benefits.⁶

Self-employed filers should keep records supporting Schedule C income and expenses for the same period, since those figures drive Schedule SE. Bank statements, invoices, and receipts substantiating net profit all matter if the IRS questions your SECA liability.²⁵

1
Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base
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Social Security Administration. Social Security and Medicare Tax Rates
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Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers for the Additional Medicare Tax
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Internal Revenue Service. Depositing and Reporting Employment Taxes
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Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. Welcome to EFTPS Online
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Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15 (Circular E), Employer’s Tax Guide
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Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 757, Forms 941 and 944 – Deposit Requirements
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 941 (Rev. March 2026)
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 944, Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040-ES (2026)
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Internal Revenue Service. Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Individuals Penalty
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Internal Revenue Service. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide
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Internal Revenue Service. Failure to Deposit Penalty
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Internal Revenue Service. Failure to File Penalty
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Internal Revenue Service. Trust Fund Recovery Penalty
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Internal Revenue Service. Employment Tax Recordkeeping