the "Medicare" part of new earned income and NII taxes

Answering in reverse:

Your earnings subject to FICA (OASDI) are tracked each year. Those annual earnings form the base for computing your SSA benefit. Also tracked are the work credits (basically one quarter equals a credit). You need 40 work credits to be eligible for SSA benefits.

Medicare eligibility requires that you work for at least 10 years in Medicare-covered employment and you are 65 years or older and a citizen or permanent resident of the United States.

How much you actually paid in tax (FICA and Medicare and Add'l Medicare) doesn't matter.

I have no doubt that there are people out there referring to the referenced taxes as Medicare Tax. I have not seen that. Congress and the US Treasury refer to the 3.8% as the Net Investment Income Tax. All the literature I have seen from the major accounting firms use that same term. The other tax (.9%) is called the Additional Medicare Tax. That is the term that I have seen used by the US Treasury and the major accounting firms. Medicare taxes have been buried in the IRC under the term Health Insurance. I have not heard any one in the business ever refer to it as a health insurance tax.

And yes.... how these taxes (OASDI, medicare tax, add'l medicare tax) get spent is designated outside of Title 26. I know not where.

[...] [...]

Thanx, Alan, for the summary of the Medicare eligibility rules (I've been surprised in other discussions that folks at or near retirement age never noticed that the SSA was tracking their lifetime Medicare taxed earnings as well as OASDI earnings).

I guess to answer my main question I'll have to try SSA itself, or find a good discussion group for Soc. Sec. and Medicare issues. I'm getting the sense that the 0.9% tax on earned income will be treated as a "real" Medicare tax attributed to each worker, while the 3.8% tax on unearned income will not.

You are right, there are many out there also referring to the NII tax as a Medicare tax on unearned income, it seems the concept must have come from somewhere. Maybe that was a working title at some point, later dropped? There are many search hits on the internet, here is one from Forbes:

" Some of these [names] include the ?3.8% Medicare Contribution tax?, the ?3.8% tax?, the ?3.8% investment tax?, and the ?3.8% Medicare tax?. Despite these names, it is interesting to note that contributions are not actually designated for the Medicare Trust fund. "

According to an article at the AICPA web site in a 2011 article,

"The provision is contained in new Sec. 1411, Unearned Income Medicare Contribution. Congress added the provision as a means of raising revenue to pay for health care reform. "

Even the IRS web site indirectly references Medicare's connection to the NII tax with this comment:

"If you are an individual who is exempt from Medicare taxes, you still may be subject to the Net Investment Income Tax if you have Net Investment Income and also have modified adjusted gross income over the applicable thresholds."

Section 1402 of the "ACA" is entitled "SEC. 1402. UNEARNED INCOME MEDICARE CONTRIBUTION."

One should not necessarily draw conclusions to naming based on the title of the section of an Act. The imposition of the tax is on net investment income. Hence the name Net Investment Income Tax. Medicare taxes fall under the name health insurance but no one refers to that tax as the health insurance tax.

I agree that the .9% add'l medicare tax is treated exactly how the "base" tax is treated (1.45% x 2).

Initially, it was referred to as a medicare contribution tax.

When Forbes got around to their extensive 4 part series on the tax.... it became the NIIT.

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Answering in reverse:

Your earnings subject to FICA (OASDI) are tracked each year. Those annual earnings form the base for computing your SSA benefit. Also tracked are the work credits (basically one quarter equals a credit). You need 40 work credits to be eligible for SSA benefits.

Medicare eligibility requires that you work for at least 10 years in Medicare-covered employment and you are 65 years or older and a citizen or permanent resident of the United States.

How much you actually paid in tax (FICA and Medicare and Add'l Medicare) doesn't matter.

I have no doubt that there are people out there referring to the referenced taxes as Medicare Tax. I have not seen that. Congress and the US Treasury refer to the 3.8% as the Net Investment Income Tax. All the literature I have seen from the major accounting firms use that same term. The other tax (.9%) is called the Additional Medicare Tax. That is the term that I have seen used by the US Treasury and the major accounting firms. Medicare taxes have been buried in the IRC under the term Health Insurance. I have not heard any one in the business ever refer to it as a health insurance tax.

And yes.... how these taxes (OASDI, medicare tax, add'l medicare tax) get spent is designated outside of Title 26. I know not where.

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1) Medicare (and Social Security) are in Title 42.

2) One is also eligible for Medicare under other circumstances and need not be 65 years old, etc..... The disabled get it after being on disability for

25 months, except for renal failure where they are eligible from day 1 of disability. I am not familiar with the requirements for those born disabled (i.e. missing limbs, etc.).