[falcolas]

Companies pay, behind the scenes, another chunk of payroll tax that is roughly equal to what the employee pays. It doesn’t make the total 50%, but the taxes paid on your salary are higher than just 25%, even if it doesn’t show up on your paystub.

[pc86]

So now we're including taxes paid by the company when discussing personal income tax rates?

[falcolas]

The amount paid is directly proportional to your payroll cost, just like your income taxes. Both amounts are paid by the company directly to the IRS. The only real difference is that one amount is just put on your pay stub, one is not.

It seems disingenuous to not consider it a part of the taxes paid based on your income (though it certainly sounds better to say that we only pay, say, 25%, instead of 40%).

[medvezhenok]

Since this cost is associated with payroll (a.k.a. your income, as a worker), it's fair game to put the employer contribution to FICA under taxes on worked income.