Adjustment of contribution and benefit base

Whenever the Commissioner of Social Security pursuant to section 415(i) of this title increases benefits effective with the December following a cost-of-living computation quarter, the Commissioner shall also determine and publish in the Federal Register on or before November 1 of the calendar year in which such quarter occurs the contribution and benefit base determined under subsection (b) or (c) which shall be effective with respect to remuneration paid after the calendar year in which such quarter occurs and taxable years beginning after such year.

The amount of such contribution and benefit base shall (subject to subsection (c)) be the amount of the contribution and benefit base in effect in the year in which the determination is made or, if larger, the product of—

(1) $60,600, and

(2) the ratio of (A) the national average wage index (as defined in section 409(k)(1) of this title ) for the calendar year before the calendar year in which the determination under subsection (a) is made to (B) the national average wage index (as so defined) for 1992,

with such product, if not a multiple of $300, being rounded to the next higher multiple of $300 where such product is a multiple of $150 but not of $300 and to the nearest multiple of $300 in any other case.

For purposes of this section, and for purposes of determining wages and self-employment income under sections 409, 411, 413, and 415 of this title and sections 1402, 3121, 3122, 3125, 6413, and 6654 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, (1) the “contribution and benefit base” with respect to remuneration paid in (and taxable years beginning in) any calendar year after 1973 and prior to the calendar year with the June of which the first increase in benefits pursuant to section 415(i) of this title becomes effective shall be $13,200 or (if applicable) such other amount as may be specified in a law enacted subsequent to the law which added this section, and (2) the “contribution and benefit base” with respect to remuneration paid (and taxable years beginning)—

(A) in 1978 shall be $17,700,

(B) in 1979 shall be $22,900,

(C) in 1980 shall be $25,900, and

(D) in 1981 shall be $29,700.

For purposes of determining under subsection (b) the “contribution and benefit base” with respect to remuneration paid (and taxable years beginning) in 1982 and subsequent years, the dollar amounts specified in clause (2) of the preceding sentence shall be considered to have resulted from the application of such subsection (b) and to be the amount determined (with respect to the years involved) under that subsection.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the contribution and benefit base determined under this section for any calendar year after 1976 for purposes of section 1322(b)(3)(B) of title 29 , with respect to any plan, shall be the contribution and benefit base that would have been determined for such year if this section as in effect immediately prior to the enactment of the Social Security Amendments of 1977 had remained in effect without change (except that, for purposes of subsection (b) of such section 430 of this title as so in effect, the reference to the contribution and benefit base in paragraph (1) of such subsection (b) shall be deemed a reference to an amount equal to $45,000, each reference in paragraph (2) of such subsection (b) to the average of the wages of all employees as reported to the Secretary of the Treasury shall be deemed a reference to the national average wage index (as defined in section 409(k)(1) of this title ), the reference to a preceding calendar year in paragraph (2)(A) of such subsection (b) shall be deemed a reference to the calendar year before the calendar year in which the determination under subsection (a) of such section 430 of this title is made, and the reference to a calendar year in paragraph (2)(B) of such subsection (b) shall be deemed a reference to 1992).