Taxable wages
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In payroll, the sum of all earnings for an employee that are eligible for a particular type of tax are considered Taxable Wages with respect to that tax. Each tax is different and has different regulations about limits to the amount of wages that can be considered taxable with respect to that tax.
[edit] Example
A common example, FUTA Tax, which stands for the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, in the United States, currently (in 2004) has a taxable wage limit of 7000 dollars. As described on the form which records information for this tax payed by employers, IRS form 940, only the first 7000 dollars of wages earned by each employee can be considered for the FUTA tax.
| Name | Wages | Taxable Wages |
| Joe Smith | 8500 | 7000 |
| Jeff Doe | 4000 | 4000 |
| Jane Murray | 500 | 500 |
| Erica Stein | 4500 | 4500 |
| Total Taxable Wages: | 16000 | |
As you can see in this example, Joe Smith earns 8500. Since this is higher than the limit of FUTA for taxable wages, which is 7000, the FUTA tax calculated for Joe cannot be calculated against any more than the limit of 7000.
