Tax Question

[Riceball]

Fellow forumers, particularly those of British, Canadian or American persuasion, I need your help.

In your tax systems, do you have some kind of direct tax mechanism that the Government uses to pull aside money specifically for welfare/social services? I'm doing a research paper on Australia's tax competitiveness and in the OECD figures that I'm looking at, there is a category of taxation called "Social security contributions", which Australia does not feature in. Hence, my guess is that your tax systems have a specific mechanism built in relating to social security.

Funny thing is, I can't find a definition of social security contributions on the OECD site, or on the net more generally. I suppose its just so utilised in the rest of the world that noone thought it would ever need to be defined lol.

Amirite or amirong?

[reo73]

Yes, part of the payroll taxes that an organization pays for each employee goes directly into the national Social Security and Medicare systems.  

[PraXis]

For Social Security, the employer and employee each pay the same percentage.. I want to say around 7% but can't remember the exact amount. With the tax code extension that passed a couple months ago, the employees contribution is cut in half (roughly), but the employer pays the same.