I’m sorry to hear that. Better luck in the next election.
: d&r :
My mother works for the IRS…she pays taxes…
And don’t volunteer to switch to FERS, no matter what! (I’m assuming you’re still working.) Take it from someone who took early retirement under CSRS at the ripe old age of 46 (hence at least one of the meanings of my username!).
Mrs. Kunilou is a public school teacher. She of course pays all the usual state and federal taxes. However she belongs to a public pension plan and therefore does not pay into Social Security. However, that covers only her regular, contracted salary. When she teaches summer school or does other non-contract work, that income is subject to Social security taxes.
Confusing.
I thought you were talking about Federal and State Income tax.
Social Security is a seperate issue / temporary retirement deal.
AFAIK members of congress pay Federal taxes and State taxes from where they reside or represent. IIRC it seems that it comes up every year as an issue with the press wanting to have the politicians income tax records made public.
We should be careful that this thread doesn’t turn into a poll on who pays Social Security Tax and who doesn’t
We should also be careful that this thread doesn’t turn into a great debate on weather we should pay taxes or not.
Somehow that is an incredibly satisfying thing to read.
Ok, you’re wrong. 
In short: Congressmen and women pay into the Social Security System and into a separate retirement system…
from C-SPAN
More information can be found in
this Congressional Research Service report.
How is the government going to figure out exactly how much to pay their employees, then? In every income-taxing country I am aware of, taxes are assessed on annual income, not per-paycheque. Furthermore, different employees will be claiming different tax credits and whatnot. Because personal situations and tax forms change every year, people don’t usually know ahead of time which credits and deductions they’re eligible for.
I remember back when FERS was first starting and they were making a big thing about trying to get as many people as possible to make the switch. One of the supposed selling points was that if you already had some Social Security credits, but not enough to qualify for benefits (which was my situation), this would keep those credits from being “wasted.” But I looked at the numbers more carefully and decided to stay with CSRS. I could take early retirement now, at 50, but with the age reduction it’s not quite enough to live on. Maybe in a few more years, though…
To be strictly accurate there is an income test and if you are over a certain amount exclusive of Social Security then 85% of the Social Security is added to taxable income.
Yup - hence the smiley!
(I notice your location is Reston - you didn’t happen to work for the USGS, did you?)
Quite right. In hindsight, I wish I had prefaced my post with
<slight hijack>
or
“We do pay income tax. Perhaps what you’re thinking of is …”.
Nope, I was a GSA drone. It would have been nice to work for USGS - I could have bicycled to work!
Does there remain a General Question on the table[sup]1[/sup]?
[sup]1[/sup]The tax table, of course. Ah, I slay me.
I had a neighbor who was a Michigan State Policeman. He did pay State and Income tax, but not Social Security. Apparently they have (had?) their own system.
Military personnel also pay taxes.
But, if we don’t live in base housing, we receive a housing allowance which is non-taxable.
Also, troops deployed to combat zones are not taxed. Troops in South Korea currently pay taxes, but some people are lobbying to make that a tax-free zone.
The only quasi-government workers who are exempt from Federal and state income taxes, AFAIK, are employees of the World Bank, in D.C.