# Vocabulary Back to [[Topics/Social Security and Medicare Myths/Social Security and Medicare Myths|Social Security and Medicare Myths]] | Term | Meaning | |---|---| | **FICA** | Federal Insurance Contributions Act. The name of the payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare. The post uses "FICA" for the whole program. | | **OASDI** | Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance: the formal name of Social Security's benefit programs. | | **Payroll tax rate** | 6.2% for Social Security plus 1.45% for Medicare, each paid by the employee and the employer. The employee's share is 7.65%. Self-employed people pay both halves, 15.3% ([IRS topic 751](https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc751)). | | **Wage base (taxable maximum)** | The yearly earnings cap on the Social Security part of the tax. For 2026 it is $184,500 ([SSA fact sheet](https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/cola/factsheets/2026.html)). Medicare tax has no cap. | | **Trust fund** | The accounts created by the 1939 amendments that hold payroll-tax revenue and pay benefits. They hold Treasury securities, not cash. | | **Unified budget** | Federal budget presentation that includes trust-fund transactions. Used from fiscal 1969 to 1990, which the chain email calls "moving the money to the general fund". | | **Off-budget** | Trust-fund transactions shown separately from the rest of the budget; restored for Social Security in 1990 ([SSA](https://www.ssa.gov/history/BudgetTreatment.html)). | | **Taxable benefits** | Since 1984, up to 50% of benefits count as income for people above income thresholds, and from 1994 up to 85% ⚠️ (year from memory) ([Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/social-security-history-lesson-post/)). This is the share counted as income, not a tax rate. | | **SSI** | Supplemental Security Income, a means-tested welfare program enacted in 1972 (payments began in 1974 ⚠️) and paid from general revenue; not the same as Social Security. | | **Chain email** | A text passed along by forwarding, usually unsourced and recycled with small edits. |