Tax Withholding

• Author: Lionel S. Sobel
• Pages: 127-135

127

CHAPTER 6

Tax Withholding

Withholding from Wages Earned by U.S. Citizens

and Resident Aliens

While Working in the United States

Income Tax

Social Security and Medicare

While Working Abroad

Income Tax

Social Security and Medicare

Avoiding, or at Least Minimizing, Double Taxation

and Redundant Withholding

Tax withholding looks pretty simple for most entertainers. If they

are employees, their employer withholds payroll taxes—income tax,

Social Security, and Medicare—from their paychecks and deposits the

amounts withheld with the U.S. Treasury, along with the employer’s

share of Social Security and Medicare. But it’s not this simple for all

entertainers. It’s done this way for U.S. citizens and resident aliens

who earn income while working in the United States. While this is

the most common scenario, it is just one of several possible scenarios,

each of which has its own withholding rules. There are three broad

categories of possibilities.

1. Withholding from income earned by U.S. citizens and resident

aliens while working in the United States or abroad. This is the

topic of this chapter.

2. Withholding from income earned by nonresident aliens

while working in the United States, which will be covered in

Chapter 10.

3. Withholding in foreign countries from income earned by U.S.

citizens and U.S.-resident aliens while working in those foreign

countries, which will be covered in Chapter 11.

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