Answers to Questions From Senator Hatch About Various Options for Payroll Taxes and Social Security
Report
CBO examined the implications of various approaches to altering the Social Security payroll tax rates as well as the taxable maximum (the maximum amount of earnings on which those payroll taxes are imposed).
Senator Orrin Hatch asked CBO several questions about the implications of altering the Social Security payroll tax rates as well as the taxable maximum (the maximum amount of earnings on which those payroll taxes are imposed). This document provides CBO’s answers to those questions.
For the various options discussed, CBO presents the changes that would result in the annual payroll taxes paid by employees and employers, and for people born at various times and with various levels of earnings, the change in their median lifetime payroll taxes and median initial replacement rates (benefits as a percentage of career-average earnings).
CBO based its answers on projections issued last September in The 2013 Long-Term Budget Outlook. In that report, the 75-year projection period for Social Security spans 2013 to 2087. All changes to payroll tax rates and the taxable maximum analyzed for this report would begin in January 2015.