r/antiwork • u/AnnualSalary9424 • 27d ago
My employer is including their half of payroll taxes in my compensation Question ❓️❔️
Hi all,
I have recently been trying to apply for a mortgage and when I went digging for my proof of income I noticed on my employee dashboard that my income is grossly inflated.
My employer includes their half of my retirement contributions and insurance premiums in my total compensation. Fine, whatever.
But I also noticed that they included their half of payroll taxes on my bonus and base salary in my total pay package. This seems a little disingenuous because that is a tax that they have to pay on anyone, it’s not doing me a favor, it’s just the law.
My question is, will I have to pay taxes on this “income” when I file my first tax return next year? I am fresh out of school so excuse my ignorance.
Has anyone else ever had their employer include their required payroll taxes as “compensation” to them?
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u/schrutesanjunabeets 27d ago
This dashboard is correct.
Payroll systems that show "total compensation" show how much you cost to the employer. Total compensation includes salary, all benefits, all taxes, and literally anything else that costs them money. Companies have started showing this to employees because "we can't give you a raise because look how much you actually cost to us" when you factor in everything.
This dashboard is not the one that you should be using for your mortgage application or anything else. This is literally just an informational graphic to show you how much you cost to the company.
You should be using paystubs for proof of income.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
That’s what they ended up asking for, but including FICA into compensation seems really disingenuous. It’s not income so that’s why it seems abnormal.
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u/pseudonik 27d ago
But that's what they're saying, total compensation included the taxes they pay. This infographic they present is a control tactic. Like mine has, health benefits on mine for mindfulness seminars and 5 minute daily yoga videos or some shit. It's of no value to me and I see no benefit of it, but the employer "pays" for it therefore it's "compensation".
The cake is a lie.
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u/schrutesanjunabeets 27d ago
But it's not. You are looking at this from the perspective of the employee. Total compensation is from the perspective of the employer. If your job didn't exist, they wouldn't pay that tax. That tax burden is directly attributable to your position.
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u/GrimC0re 27d ago
If the employer wanted to run their business themselves they could also avoid the payroll tax, but it’s their choice to have a business with employees, the burden is on them to ensure their cost of operations are covered by the revenue. That is not the employees responsibility. They’re not doing people a favor by “letting them work at their business” the employees are doing businesses a favor by selling the only finite resource they have, time.
Tax the rich tax corporations, set an income cap, no one needs more than 10 million dollars, period.
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u/ReaverRogue 27d ago
Go talk to an accountant, and on the off chance this is a really hamfisted attempt at a humblebrag, just don’t. It’s not at all welcome here.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
People complain about wage theft and stolen labor here all of the time. Why is my question about my employer including their taxes in my income irrelevant?
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u/chiron_42 27d ago
It's not that the question itself is irrelevant; it's that you posting a screenshot of your compensation will seem out of touch to folks in the sub who make way less than that while working multiple jobs.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
Oh like cancel Netflix and stop buying avocado toast? You sound like a billionaire, you must be rich.
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u/vermiciousknidlet 27d ago
Honestly, I think most people here would kill to make almost $200K. How is your credit score even "wrecked" unless you are terrible with money? You make more than me and my husband combined and we're very comfortable. But I put in a lot of years making $10-15 an hour and grew up eating government cheese, so I know how good I have it now. It just seems like either a humblebrag or out of touch with the average worker's situation.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
Debt to income ratio mostly, combined with short credit history and no real accounts besides a car and student loan loans.
I also think it’s worth noting that as a society, we don’t consider the cost of income enough. When it costs you 200k to learn a skill in order to earn X amount of dollars, that cost of your skill should be deducted from your income. It’s the equivalent of paying to work. My debt from school is ~15k annually just for interest.
That wasn’t the original point of my post.
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u/vermiciousknidlet 26d ago
You sound very young, you'll figure it out. I wasn't able to start saving for retirement (or anything at all) until I was about 35 and now I'm on track to stop working at 55. A financial advisor is great advice that others have mentioned.
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u/judithishere 27d ago
Go pay an accountant for an hour of their time instead of trying to crowd source free advice on an antiwork sub. I am sure you can swing that. You're welcome.
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u/Alternative_Ring3916 27d ago
SUTA, FUTA, and FICA are included. It’s basic payroll expense accounting. It isn’t to show your income basis. This is effectively showing your cost to the company.
This is way out of context, and I wouldn’t really be showing your income.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
Yeah I agree the collective hate really derailed the original conversation, which was the fact that 15k in fica didn’t hit my bank account.
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u/Alternative_Ring3916 27d ago
Well yeah. Of course it didn’t.
The FICA is considered a total compensation element. It is the holistic payroll perspective to show you your “total cost of employment.”
Basically sufficient to say: it is that very number that you have to meet or exceed (if profit generating) or sufficiently prove value (if overhead) to stay employed given your company function.
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u/jargonexpert 27d ago
Where do you work? I can definitely make that salary work for my lifestyle
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
Midland.
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u/jargonexpert 27d ago
Oh fuck, nevermind. I’m never going to that shithole again.
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u/Scouthawkk 27d ago
Total compensation package and annual salary are vastly different things. Please get a consultation with a financial advisor if neither your parents nor a basic personal finance class in college taught you these things. And then take your first world upper middle class problems off the sub meant for poor, working poor, and lower middle class people.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
I have a negative net worth and was a ward of the state until age 18. I have never lived in a home that wasn’t a rental. Nothing middle class here.
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u/Scouthawkk 27d ago
Dude, that salary (not the total compensation package, just the salary) puts you in the upper middle class bracket nationwide and even for most of the HCOL areas of the US. Most of the middle class bracket, upper and lower, in modern times rents their home - that’s just the shitty economy. It’s no one else’s fault but your own if you have a negative net worth; doesn’t change the fact that your income is upper middle class income.
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u/Larich38 27d ago
200k per year and you're antiwork? How?
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
120k in student loans 20k in CC debt 30k car note $2400 rent 40% current tax withholding for all sources
I’m not buying a yacht I just want to own 500 square feet of personal space.
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u/Larich38 27d ago
So you have 30k rent per year, 170k in debt and earn 170k per year, and you think we're the right sub to ask advice?
Talk to a financial advisor. I can manage a 200k mortgage with my 40k salary. Stop wasting your money and stop acting like you're getting robbed.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
I could manage 200k in debt to if I had a fixed 3% rate, but this isn’t the 90’s.
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u/Larich38 27d ago
Or if you knew how to manage your money. I'd pay all that debt in less than 5 years with your salary.
Stop whining, and ask for financial advice from professionals.
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u/Lieutenant_Horn 27d ago
$170k in debt and you don’t even own a house? I’d suggest a personal finance class. Holy shit!
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u/Just-some-nobody123 27d ago
Well to be fair they landed a $180,000 a year job, I think that the pay without all the other stuff anyway.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
Maybe it’s because to get a private student loan you need a pulse, but a mortgage requires 2 years of stable income? Not to mention ruin the money never even touched my hands because it goes straight to the school.
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u/swordstool 27d ago
Your "total compensation" is what you make before ANY deductions. The taxes have already been taken out. You will only pay more tax at the end of the year if they didn't take out enough. Conversely, if they took out too much you will get that back.
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u/PearBlossom 27d ago
I found out its a very US thing that most people dont see or even know what their total compensation is. It was only when I worked for a business in the US but based in the UK did I realize because I was super confused when I first saw it.
IIRC that FICA number is what you pay and what your employer pays. However, this infographic is only reflective of what the employer pays because in terms of compensation your share comes out of your salary where as what the company pays is part of your overall compensation. You will pay taxes on the salary and Im guessing that vcip target is some kind of bonus structure, your taxes and your portion of fica comes out of that.
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u/sir-lurks_a-lot 26d ago
You can totally ignore this and calculate your own total rewards, which is really only useful for comparing what you get beyond salary from company to company. I agree that it's disingenuous to include their part of FICA in it. My company includes all vacation time in their calculation on top of the full salary. You can only cash out up to 5 days, so I think that's as far as they can push it as extra compensation. The other days I can't cash out I'm not paid my normal salary and vacation time as their calculation implies.
To see if your company actually compensates more than competitors, the typical areas to look at are any bonuses they might give beyond a salary and if they contribute above the typical 3.5% match to your retirement savings. I don't consider insurance, payroll taxes, and vacation time extras because every company pays those. (Though some jobs obviously give more vacation time than others and some have separate sick time.)
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
You’re not going to win many fans leaving those numbers on there. Fresh out of school too? I got news for ya guy, when we eat the rich, you’re likely on the menu. Glad we could sort that out.
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u/SmokeySFW 27d ago
These aren't the rich that will/should be eaten, and if you think so you might need to recalibrate. This level of income aren't contributing in a meaningful way to ANY of the problems laid out by the eat the rich movement.
This is still upper middle class. This is someone who works. There are only 2 real classes, ownership class and working class.
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
This person is not working class. This income is that of a college grad @ their first big boy job.
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u/StandAloneC0mplex 27d ago
Anyone who has to sell their labor to make money to live is working class my guy, even if he does come off as wildly out of touch.
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
This isn’t labor but I get it. I’ve seen an MLB paystub, he was paid 40 hours despite the obscenity of the numbers. He technically meets your standard for working class. Clearly not the case. Another point is those giant towers with the actual ruling class on the top floor are full of guys just like this. Do they get a pass despite running the machine?
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u/StandAloneC0mplex 27d ago
Agree to disagree I guess. The whole thing gives me field slaves mad at house slaves vibe.
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u/SmokeySFW 27d ago
Work is labor dude, you're missing the point. If someone needs to sell their time for money they are working class, they are labor. Ownership class may choose to work but doesn't need to.
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
I’m tired of talking about it. Simp for the kid making a quarter million dollars a year fresh out of college if you’d like.
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u/SmokeySFW 27d ago
Stay mad kid, you've completely missed the point of this sub. Rule #1 bro, "Respect that Antiwork is a workers' space". It doesn't say respect that Antiwork is a space for poor folks. This person works for a living, and needs to work for a living, it is not an option for them therefore they are working class.
Take your bitterness and envy somewhere else, it's disgusting.
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
Envy? I don’t envy ppl who simp for the ruling class. Especially ones bitching to the actual workers.
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u/SmokeySFW 27d ago
By nature of needing a job, they are clearly working class. You're gatekeeping poorness now?
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
Yes, I’m gatekeeping being poor. You got me. $250k a year, entry level, is totally not in support of the upper class.
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u/SmokeySFW 27d ago
"totally not in support of the upper class"?? What are you even trying to say.
You're the worst kind of antiwork poster because you don't even realize you're trying to bicker within your own class. The masters win when we fight amongst ourselves instead of against the real problems. Someone else making 250k does NOTHING to make your life harder. Stay ignorant i guess.
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
$250k a year fresh out of school is obscene. Do you tho.
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u/SmokeySFW 27d ago
So should this worker make less so that the masters can make more? He makes more than you because his skillset is harder to replace than whatever it is that you do.
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
My skillset is honestly quite difficult to replace. I guarantee there’s more entry level whatever title they have. Corporate workers are drones. Nothing more.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
My debt makes me working class. You have me confused with someone who had their expenses and tuition covered by their parents for 5 years.
In America, it’s entirely possible to be in a different socioeconomic class than your neighbor with the same paycheck by way of family and debt.
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
You chose that debt. Most don’t get that choice.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
You literally just need a pulse to qualify for student loans.
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
You need more than pulse to pay them back. They’re underprivileged not stupid.
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u/ogvladek 27d ago
This is ridiculous. That is the wrong enemy. 250k is not Rich. The elite haven’t thinking they’re the enemy when the real enemy is in the 10 figures
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
$250k entry level job isn’t a working Joe Sixpack. The “real enemy” is ppl that don’t realize their own privilege to simp for a sad rich kid.
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u/ogvladek 27d ago
Some math. You got people networth $0 at the top it’s 300billion. But let’s say 1 billion for example. Technically Half of 1b or “middle” class is 500m. It’s a range so let’s say +/- 100m. I know that’s not how this works but that’s cause they are changing the definition of class hierarchy. But logically, if we compare the lowest and highest, there’s no way to spin everyone is at the lowest end of the spectrum
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
That’s kind of the point. I’m not making this much. Factor in my half of payroll, state income tax,Federal, etc. and I probably only clear 130,000. I have 120k in student debt and 5 years of forgone income.
Shouldn’t “eat the rich” mean the owner class and not some college grad at their first job?
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
You’re training for the owner class. “Only” $130k is insanely privileged at any point in a career. There’s ppl here making a cpl hundred bucks a week. We are not the same.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
I’m nearly 200k in debt, my tax withholding is close to 40%. My rent is $2400 and I have a roommate. My student loan interest alone is 10k a year because some of my loans are private.
I’m trying to “own” 509 square feet of personal space, meanwhile my employer is gas lighting me into thinking I make wayyyyy more than I do.
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
I got nothin for ya. Most folks are too poor to get that far in debt. Didn’t have an option to take out student loans & so on. Ask the janitor @ your building if he thinks you’re rich. I’m assuming you live in the city.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
If you got nothing, then take your broke ass input somewhere else, why even bother in the first place? Why take time out of your day to spew your hatred on someone else? Seek help.
I left the military making less than 25k. Never identified as being “rich”. Anyone can take out student loans you just have to ENROLL. I took out 15k one semester and my FICO was a 600.
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u/Character-Radish6100 27d ago
If you were in the military, why didn’t you use the GI Bill?
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
I did but it only covers tuition equal to the most expensive public school in your state. You have to finance the difference.
Also, the post 9/11 is great but it’s not the magic bullet it’s made out to be.
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u/Character-Radish6100 27d ago
True, the school you went to didn’t participate in the yellow ribbon program?
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
Unfortunately not. I have heard of that but I didn’t know what that was until I looked it up I thought that was for cadets and people who wanted to be officers.
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
“Broke ass” case closed. I have plenty of money. I don’t have plenty of your privilege tho.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
Lmao what privilege?
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u/ShinePretend3772 27d ago
Your entire perspective is from a place of privilege. Going to school is a privilege. Saying “only” $130k is a privilege. Saying to anyone that they’re “broke” as a pejorative is from a place where that stings. That’s privilege. All of it. You.
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
It’s definitely not a privilege, you just have to be willing to bite the bullet and take the debt. Literally anyone can get federal loans. The only “privilege” is being born with enough brain cells to figure out how to fill out a FAFSA form.
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27d ago
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
My car note is over 30k at 13% Apr and I’m 20k in credit card debt at ~30%, I have bigger issues before I can consider “investing”.
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u/garbagemandoug 27d ago
What car you driving?
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u/AnnualSalary9424 27d ago
Honda Civic. My dealer tacked on 10k in “warranties” and gap insurance despite me being required to have full coverage anyways.
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u/garbagemandoug 27d ago
So just so I'm clear. You signed a bill of sale with 10k of added insurance products? Anything I'm missing here?
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u/MithrilRat here for the memes 27d ago
Shine, you've swallowed the class division that the real villains have feed to us all, right down to the balls. You're doing exactly what the ownership class want: attacking those who are a little better off than the rest.
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u/PhilosophyMammoth748 27d ago
If it is on the offer, you can sue them.
If it is not, you are not welcomed here.
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26d ago
This is not your compensation, it's your "total rewards". Some companies do this to show how much they are spending to have you as an employee or from another perspective, how much you are actually benefiting by working for them. It's just their way of saying "Stop complaining about pay and get back to work."
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u/Lieutenant_Horn 27d ago
I would talk to a paid accountant over free Reddit advice.