What are FICA taxes?
The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) consists of two components commonly referred to as Social Security and Medicare. Strictly speaking, FICA provides for a federal system of old age, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI) and hospital insurance (HI). The OASDI component is financed through the social security portion of FICA and the HI component (for persons 65 or older) is financed through the medicare portion.