--- title: Payroll Taxes Are Going Up for Millions of High-Earning Americans This Year description: An adjustment in the social security payroll tax rules in 2017 means that 12 million workers must pay an extra $500 to $1,000 in taxes this year. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Taxes - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2017-01-09T15:02:53.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T12:08:31.000Z' section: Taxes tags: - Earnings - income - Social Security - Taxes - Wages word_count: 246 canonical: https://money.com/payroll-taxes-social-security-2017/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Personal finances](https://img.money.com/2017/01/payrolltaxes-ff-158433399.jpg) President-elect Donald Trump has promised lower taxes and a simplified tax code for all Americans. But during Trump's first year in office, a scheduled adjustment to Social Security payroll taxes means that millions of workers will see hundreds of extra dollars automatically deducted from their paychecks. The paychecks of many affected workers will shrink by over $500 during the course of 2017. Self-employed workers may be on the hook for $1,000 or more in extra payroll taxes this year. What's causing the bump in taxes? As a [*Bloomberg* article](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-09/get-ready-to-pay-500-more-in-taxes) explained, in recent years, workers have paid Social Security payroll taxes of 6.2% only on the first $118,500 in earnings. In 2017, the rate stays the same, but workers must pay that 6.2% on the first $127,200 they make. It's the biggest change in the tax in more than three decades, and the gist is that the extra level of taxable income could result in as much as $539 disappearing from each affected worker's paycheck in 2017. Self-employed workers, who bear the full brunt of Social Security payroll taxes with no help from an employer, could pay more than $1,000 extra this year due to the increase in the taxable minimum. Note that low-earning workers aren't affected at all by the changes. Only those earning more than $118,500 will be impacted. But it is a very large group—estimated at 12 million workers—that will be seeing their paychecks slashed, by way of an increase in their payroll taxes. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/payroll-taxes-social-security-2017/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Taxes", "item": "https://money.com/taxes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Tax Breaks", "item": "https://money.com/tax-breaks/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Payroll Taxes Are Going Up for Millions of High-Earning Americans This Year" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/payroll-taxes-social-security-2017/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/payroll-taxes-social-security-2017/", "name": "Payroll Taxes Are Going Up for Millions of High-Earning Americans This Year", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2017-01-09T15:02:53.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/payroll-taxes-social-security-2017/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/payroll-taxes-social-security-2017/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T12:08:31.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Payroll Taxes Are Going Up for Millions of High-Earning Americans This Year", "articleSection": "Taxes", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/01/payrolltaxes-ff-158433399.jpg", "width": 5184, "height": 3456, "caption": "Personal finances" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2017-01-09T15:02:53.000Z", "description": "An adjustment in the social security payroll tax rules in 2017 means that 12 million workers must pay an extra $500 to $1,000 in taxes this year.", "abstract": "An adjustment in the social security payroll tax rules in 2017 means that 12 million workers must pay an extra $500 to $1,000 in taxes this year.", "@id": "https://money.com/payroll-taxes-social-security-2017/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-16T12:08:31.000Z", "wordCount": 246, "keywords": [ "Earnings", "income", "Social Security", "Taxes", "Wages" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Tax", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Tax break", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_break" ] } ] } ] } ```