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4 

UNITED STATES v. QUALITY STORES, INC. 

Opinion of the Court 

II
 
A 

The first question is whether FICA’s definition of “wages” 
encompasses  severance  payments.    The  beginning  point 
is  the  relevant  statutory  text.    Mississippi  ex rel.  Hood 
v.  AU  Optronics  Corp.,  571  U. S.  ___,  ___  (2014)  (slip  op., 
at 5).

To fund benefits provided by the Social Security Act and
Medicare, FICA taxes “wages” paid by an employer or re-
ceived  by  an  employee  “with  respect  to  employment.”    26 
U.  S.  C.  §§3101(a),  (b),  3111(a),  (b).    Congress  chose  to 
define wages under FICA “broadly.”  Mayo Foundation for 
Medical Ed. and Research v. United States, 562 U. S. ___, 
___  (2011)  (slip  op.,  at  2).    FICA  defines  “wages”  as  “all
remuneration for employment, including the cash value of
all remuneration (including benefits) paid in any medium 
§3121(a).  The  term  “employment” 
other  than  cash.” 
encompasses  “any  service,  of  whatever  nature,  performed 
. . .  by  an  employee  for  the  person  employing  him.” 
§3121(b).

Under this definition, and as a matter of plain meaning, 
severance  payments  made  to  terminated  employees  are
“remuneration for employment.”  Severance payments are,
of course, “remuneration,” and common sense dictates that 
employees receive the payments “for employment.”  Sever-
ance  payments  are  made  to  employees  only.    It  would 
be  contrary  to  common  usage  to  describe  as  a  severance
payment  remuneration  provided  to  someone  who  has  not 
worked  for  the  employer.    Severance  payments  are  made
in  consideration  for  employment—for  a  “service  . . .  per-
formed”  by  “an  employee  for  the  person  employing  him,”
per FICA’s definition of the term “employment.”  Ibid.
  In Social Security Bd. v. Nierotko, 327 U. S. 358 (1946),
the Court interpreted the term “wages” in the Social Secu-
rity statutory context to have substantial breadth.  In that 
case  a  worker,  who  had  been  wrongfully  terminated,