TY  - JOUR
AU  - Feldstein,Martin
AU  - Samwick,Andrew
TI  - Social Security Rules and Marginal Tax Rates
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 3962
PY  - 1992
Y2  - August 1992
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3962
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w3962.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Martin S. Feldstein
President Emeritus
NBER
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02138-5398
Tel: 617/868-3905
Fax: 617/868-7194
E-Mail: msfeldst@nber.org

Andrew Samwick
6106 Rockefeller Hall
Department of Economics
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755-3514
Tel: 603/646-2893
Fax: 603/646-2122
E-Mail: andrew.samwick@dartmouth.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1992-08-01
AB  - The social security payroll tax has become the largest tax paid by the majority of American households.  Although, the statutory marginal social security tax rate is the same for all those with wage and salary income up to the maximum level, the complex rules linking social security taxes and subsequent benefits imply that the net marginal social security tax on individual earnings varies substantially among individuals.  For some taxpayers, the net marginal social security tax is equal to the statutory rate, while for other taxpayers the combined effect of the tax and the resulting benefits implies a very much lower net marginal tax rate or even a negative marginal tax rate when the incremental benefits exceed the additional taxes.
ER  -