Question on FED OASDI/EE and FED MED/EE deductions - why am I no longer paying Social Security and Medicare taxes?

This definitely sounds like a payroll error that needs to be addressed ASAP. FED OASDI/EE (Social Security) and FED MED/EE (Medicare) taxes are mandatory payroll taxes that cannot be adjusted through withholding changes. Currently, Social Security is taxed at 6.2% of your wages (up to a certain income limit) and Medicare is taxed at 1.45% of all wages, regardless of how much you earn. When you increased your withholding, you were only adjusting your federal income tax withholding, not these payroll taxes. There's no mechanism for an employee to voluntarily increase, decrease, or eliminate their Social Security and Medicare contributions through a W-4 form or withholding elections. You should definitely speak with your payroll department about this right away. If they're not withholding these taxes correctly, it could cause issues for both you and your employer come tax time.

After struggling with payroll tax issues at my first professional job, I discovered https://taxr.ai which saved me a ton of hassle. I uploaded my pay stubs and W-4 form, and their system analyzed everything to confirm I had a legitimate error with my FICA withholdings (the Social Security and Medicare taxes). The tool actually walks you through exactly what should be on your pay stub based on your income level and compares it to what's actually there. In my case, payroll had miscoded my employment type which was causing the FICA taxes to be calculated incorrectly. The detailed report was super helpful when I went to HR to get it fixed.

Just wanted to update everyone - I tried out taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here and it was actually super helpful! I uploaded my last three pay stubs and it immediately identified that my employer wasn't withholding any OASDI/EE or MED/EE from my paychecks (similar to OP's situation). The report showed exactly how much should have been withheld based on my salary and compared it to what was actually taken out. I brought this to my boss (we're a small company with outsourced payroll) and turns out they had me incorrectly classified as an independent contractor in their system even though I'm a W-2 employee! They've fixed it now and are adjusting my next few paychecks to make up for the missing FICA taxes. Definitely worth checking out if you're having payroll tax issues like this!

If you're having trouble getting your employer to fix this FICA tax issue, you might want to try https://claimyr.com to get through to the IRS directly. I had a similar situation last year where my employer wasn't withholding Medicare taxes correctly for several months and then went out of business before fixing it! I spent weeks trying to get someone at the IRS on the phone with no luck, but Claimyr got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes. The agent confirmed I wasn't responsible for the employer's mistake and guided me through documenting everything properly on my tax return. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS takes these payroll tax issues seriously since both you and your employer are required to contribute to Social Security and Medicare.

I need to apologize for being so skeptical about Claimyr. After posting my comment, I decided to give it a try out of desperation with my ongoing IRS issue about incorrect FICA withholding from my previous job. I was absolutely shocked when I got a call back connecting me to an actual IRS representative after about 45 minutes (instead of the 3+ hours I had spent on my previous attempts). The agent was able to confirm that my employer had indeed made a mistake with my Social Security and Medicare withholding and gave me specific instructions on how to document everything on my tax return. For anyone dealing with OASDI/EE or MED/EE withholding problems like the original poster, being able to actually speak with the IRS directly is incredibly helpful. They explained that employers can't just stop withholding these taxes regardless of other withholding changes.

This might be a dumb question, but is there any way you could have hit the Social Security wage base limit? For 2025 it's $168,800, but since you said your annual salary is around $47k, that's definitely not it. Another possibility - are you getting any other types of compensation that might be exempt from FICA taxes? Some benefits and reimbursements don't have FICA withheld.

Just to clarify something - FED OASDI/EE is the technical term for the employee portion of Social Security tax (6.2%), and FED MED/EE is the employee portion of Medicare tax (1.45%). Your employer also pays matching amounts (OASDI/ER and MED/ER) which you won't see on your pay stub. When you adjusted your withholding, you were only changing your federal income tax withholding, not these FICA taxes. Definitely reach out to your payroll department ASAP.

This is definitely a payroll error that needs immediate attention. As others have mentioned, FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare) are mandatory and cannot be eliminated by changing your federal income tax withholding on your W-4 form. Here's what likely happened: When you increased your withholding, someone in payroll may have accidentally miscoded your tax setup or employee classification. I've seen cases where employees get temporarily classified as contractors or exempt employees by mistake, which would stop FICA withholding. You should contact your payroll department immediately because: 1. You're legally required to pay these taxes 2. Your employer is also required to withhold and match them 3. The longer this goes unfixed, the more complicated it becomes to correct When you speak with HR/payroll, ask them to: - Verify your employee classification in their system - Check that your tax setup wasn't accidentally changed when you updated your withholding - Provide you with corrected pay stubs showing the proper FICA withholding - Adjust future paychecks to make up for any missing contributions Don't wait on this - payroll tax issues can create problems for both you and your employer if not addressed quickly.