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Determining Taxable Amount. If your base income exceeds the limit for your filing group, you'll have to pay taxes on some of your Social Security benefits. If you're a single filer and your base income is between $25,000 and $34,000, you'll have to pay tax on up to 50 percent of your Social Security benefits.
On the other hand, since only the first $118,500 is taxable for Social Security purposes, an individual with a $500,000 salary has an effective Social Security tax rate of just 1.5%. In addition, unlike federal income tax, no deductions or credits are applied when determining Social Security tax. Social Security tax applies to all earned income (wages, salaries, bonuses, and self-employment income) up to an annual limit, known as the Social Security wage base. For 2016, the wage base is $118,500, and this number can rise annually along with national wage growth.