Additional Medicare Tax

The Additional Medicare Tax is an extra 0.9% on high wages, paid only by the employee. Employers must start withholding it once the wages they pay you pass $200,000 in a calendar year, whatever your filing status.

The tax you actually owe is figured on your return, where the threshold depends on filing status. So a married couple can owe it even when neither job passes $200,000, and someone else may get part of it back. Someone earning $250,000 from one job has it withheld on $50,000 of wages, or $450 for the year, on top of the regular 1.45% Medicare tax.

It is part of FICA and never touches Social Security tax. Employers do not match it. Check your own numbers with the salary paycheck calculator, and see whether FICA is the same as Social Security.