208
Opinion of the Court
of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit nevertheless affirmed on the authority of Bowman. 215 F. 3d 1325 (2000) ( judgt. order).
We granted certiorari to resolve the conflict among the Courts of Appeals, 531 U. S. 943 (2000), and now reverse the Sixth Circuit's judgment.
II
The Internal Revenue Code imposes employment taxes "on every employer . . . equal to [a percentage of] wages . . . paid by him with respect to employment." 26 U. S. C. §§ 3111(a), 3111(b), 3301. The Social Security tax provision, § 3111(a), contains a table prescribing tax rates applicable to "wages paid during" each year from 1984 onward (e. g., "In cases of wages paid during . . . 1990 or thereafter . . . [t]he rate shall be . . . 6.2 percent."). The Medicare tax provision, § 3111(b)(6), says "with respect to wages paid after December 31, 1985, the rate shall be 1.45 percent." And the FUTA tax provision, 26 U. S. C. § 3301 (1994 ed., Supp. IV), says the rate shall be "6.2 percent in the case of calendar years 1988 through 2007 . . . of the total wages (as defined in section 3306(b)) paid by [the employer] during the calendar year."
Section 3121(a) of the Code establishes the annual ceiling on wages subject to Social Security tax. It does so by defining "wages" to exclude any remuneration "paid to [an] individual by [an] employer during [a] calendar year" that exceeds "remuneration . . . equal to the contribution and benefit base . . . paid to [such] individual by [such] employer during the calendar year with respect to which such contribution and benefit base is effective." Section 3306(b)(1) similarly limits annual wages subject to FUTA tax by excluding from "wages" any remuneration "paid to [an] individual by [an] employer during [a] calendar year" that exceeds "remuneration . . . equal to $7,000 . . . paid to [such] individual by [such] employer during [the] calendar year."
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