I’ve gotten my first full-time paycheck for a complete 80 hours worked in 2 weeks (actually, it’s closer to 110 hours…if you’re counting the completely useless hours I sit in traffic trying to get to work).
I was so excited, already budgeting and figuring out how to siphon my money into my different accounts and savings. Until I got the paycheck. Now, I understand taxes and deductions were going to be taken out of it but SO MUCH! I mentally started reshuffling all my finances and lengthened my savings goals.
Then I looked closer. What the heck was FICA, FIT, and SIT? It sounded so innocuous but they were drinking my hard earned money away. So, I looked it up:
FICA stands for Federal Insurance Contribution Act. These are usually a flat percentage for your Social Security and Medicare.
FIT is Federal Income Tax and SIT is State Income Tax. These are based on the W-2 form you filled out when you were hired.
Fortunately, if you qualify as a dependent and someone actually claims you as a dependent (sorry, only one person can do this at a time), then technically, no taxes are supposed to be withheld from your paycheck. If you’ve already signed the W-2 form, just report it on your taxes and you should get a big fat refund check.
And hopefully, all the money they withheld for Social Security and Medicare actually shows up after I’m retired. But, I’m not holding my breath for that.
