SS and Medicare Taxes While Working Outside the U.S.
In general, U.S. social security and Medicare taxes continue to apply to wages for services performed as an employee outside of the United States only if one of the following applies:
-
Worked for an American employer which includes:
-
The U.S. Government or any of its instrumentalities
-
An individual who is a resident of the United States
-
A partnership of which at least two-thirds of the partners are U.S. residents
-
A trust of which all the trustees are U.S. residents, and
-
A corporation organized under the laws of the United States, any U.S. state, or the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (with respect to the CNMI, refer to Revenue Ruling 80-167).
-
-
Performed the services on or in connection with an American vessel or aircraft and either:
-
Entered into an employment contract within the United States, or
-
The vessel or aircraft touches at a U.S. port while employed on it.
-
-
Working in one of the countries with which the United States has entered into a bilateral social security agreement (also known as a Totalization Agreement), and the agreement provides that the foreign employment is subject to U.S. social security and Medicare taxes.
-
Worked for a foreign affiliate of an American employer under a voluntary agreement between the American employer and the U.S. Treasury Department. A foreign affiliate of an American employer is any foreign entity in which the American employer has at least a 10% interest, directly or through one or more entities.