Originally Posted by Bridgette
The employer doesn't pay ANY social security or medicare taxes for anyone. It's all withheld from your paycheck, so whether you are an employee or not, YOU are the one paying into social security and medicare.
Being self-employed simply means that instead of SS and MC taxes being withheld from your check and paid in a little at a time so you don't really feel it, you get hit with a large bill every quarter/year. That 'self-employment tax' (social security/medicare tax) is a bit misleading because it's not an extra tax on self-employed persons at all. It's just getting billed at the end of the quarter/year while everyone else has been paying all along.