This page explains general rules, not legal or tax advice for your company. Rules change, and they depend on where your company is registered and where your people work. Before you act, check with your own lawyer, accountant or tax advisor.
2026 figures
The employer and the employee each pay Social Security and Medicare tax at these rates. Only employers pay FUTA. For 2027, the Social Security wage base is $192,300.
FUTA is 0.6% after the full credit, which is the rate the calculator uses. A company gets the full credit when it paid its state unemployment tax in full, on time and on all the same wages, and its state isn’t a credit reduction state. In a credit reduction state, the rate is 0.6% plus the reduction, which the US Department of Labor publishes.
Your state’s wage base can differ from the federal one. The US Department of Labor lists each state’s unemployment agency.
In most cases, a benefit an employee chooses in a instead of cash isn’t subject to these taxes. An employee’s 401(k) deferrals still are.
What this leaves out
- Additional Medicare Tax, 0.9% on an employee’s wages over $200,000 in a calendar year: only the employee pays it, with no employer share
- Other state and local payroll taxes, benefit costs and workers’ compensation
- An employee who works in more than one state during the year
- State unemployment tax paid late, or wages a state exempts from it, which can reduce the FUTA credit
- Section 501(c)(3) organizations exempt from tax, which aren’t subject to FUTA unless they pay wages on behalf of another kind of organization