Paying Social Security Question

[BowseRx 10]

Hey everyone, sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find anything on it. My (now wife, yay!) Is Japanese and in Japan, they start paying social security every month once they turn 20, regardless of having a job or not. In Japan it's called 厚生年金. Her mom says they stopped paying it in Japan but we need to start paying it in America. Am I missing something? I thought we only pay in America once we start working.

 

Thank you for the help guys!

[Pitaya 2,576]

This is likely a question best answered by the Social Security Administration.

 

https://www.ssa.gov

[TBoneTX 43,022]

Thread is moved from the "AOS from K Visas" main forum to the "Moving to the US" forum.

[Mike E 11,722]

America is not Japan. 

 

Social security taxes are paid on earned income and will be deducted from your paycheck.  

 

Generally you don’t need to worry about it.

 

Two exceptions, and both have to do with tax filing.  

 

1. You work two or more different jobs in a year and your total income exceeds the social security income maximum. You will have over paid your ss tax and and it will be credited back to you in your tax return. 

 

2. You are self employed and you have to pay self employment tax since social security tax is not automatically collected just like income tax. At low income levels SE tax far  exceeds income tax and many first time self employed people are shocked and awed when they find they the IRS vast sums of money.  Good rule of thumb is to reserve 30 percent of revenues   for taxes (SE, federal income, state income ). 

[Wuozopo 4,285]

13 hours ago, BowseRx said:

I thought we only pay in America once we start working.

 

You are correct. If she never works, she never pays. 

[nativeson 47]

On 5/7/2019 at 12:38 PM, BowseRx said:

in Japan, they start paying social security every month once they turn 20, regardless of having a job or not. In Japan it's called 厚生年金

 

厚生年金 (Kosei Nenkin) is paid by employers and is deducted out of your salary. There's also Kokumin Nenkin (National Pension) which is similar but has fewer benefits, can also be deducted or paid for directly. As you mention nenkin participation is mandatory even if you're jobless although people with no income can get an exemption.

 

https://blog.gaijinpot.com/understanding-the-japan-pension-system-pt-1-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work/

 

As you mention, in the US none of this is relevant, but you might want to read up on the Japan<>US totalization agreement to make sure she can get whatever benefits are due from paying into nenkin.

 

https://www.nenkin.go.jp/international/english/international/socialsecurity.html