how much will i pay for taxes

[TheWart]

hi all,

I just graduated in may, and am moving out of the house in about a month and am going to be starting a job and beginning life in the real world. I have tried to fashion out a budget for myself based on my salary and had a couple quick questions.

I do not know how the tax system works in very much detail. I understand marginal tax rates, etc, but I would like to know how much taxes I will pay (including Social Security) if i make XX,XXX dollars. Is there any site I can go to that has some sort of calculator? I am trying to figure out my take-home pay each month. My salary range is basically 45-50k, and I will be in VA, so I have state income tax as well.

I did a rudimentary tax calculation according to my bracket for federal and state, and then social security, and they totaled like 14K, which seems a little high, but is that the reality?


I would appreciate any and all help....thanks!

 

[Gneisenau]

If you have no deductions....(house, wife or kids) figure about 28% federal and 6% state with a refund at the end of the year bringing your yearly percentage to about 20-23% and 3%. That's just a quess, but I bet it's not off by more than a few percent either way.

 

[jandrews]

gneiisiosaiauuou is about right. Also dont forget to consider 5-10% ( I would choose 10%) of your gross income for 401k.

 

[LS20]

there were a few recently linked here

yahoo has a crude tax calculator

i have no state tax.. take home about 78% after medicare/ss/federal/insurance

with the above, plus 401k and discount stock, about 63%

 

[TheWart]

Originally posted by: Gneisenau
If you have no deductions....(house, wife or kids) figure about 28% federal and 6% state with a refund at the end of the year bringing your yearly percentage to about 20-23% and 3%. That's just a quess, but I bet it's not off by more than a few percent either way.

Does that include Social Security? btw, I do realize that this is al rough estimates.

thanks!

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: TheWart

Originally posted by: Gneisenau
If you have no deductions....(house, wife or kids) figure about 28% federal and 6% state with a refund at the end of the year bringing your yearly percentage to about 20-23% and 3%. That's just a quess, but I bet it's not off by more than a few percent either way.

Does that include Social Security? btw, I do realize that this is al rough estimates.

thanks!

SS + FICA are about 7.5% of your paycheck.


google 'income tax estimator'

 

[dullard]

I highly encourage people to just fill out the IRS tax for itself. Why? For one, it'll answer your question. But, the bigger reason is it'll show you clearly what you can do to help ease your tax burden. And you'll see how easy taxes can be and you never have to pay anyone to do it for you. It really isn't that complicated for most people. I bet you can do it right now in 30 minutes, at least crudely.

Assuming you don't have any complications, you'll put $0 in almost all blanks.
[*]Lets put $45k in line 7.
[*]Put $0 in all the rest on page 1 (except line 22 and 37 = $45k).
[*]Put $45k in line 38.
[*]Standard deduction is $5150 on line 40 (see Schedule A for things that can reduce your taxes paid, and plan on those items).
[*]Line 41 becomes $39850.
[*]If there is just one of you in the family, line 42 is $3300.
[*]Thus line 42 is $36550. This much of your income is taxible.
[*]Assume you have no other complications and most lines are thus $0 on page 2.

From the tax tables, page 71, your federal income tax is $5701. It took me maybe 3 minutes total to do those taxes for you. It took far longer to type it out on ATOT.

A quick Google search gave VA income taxes. Add in 5.75% tax on every dollar you earn.

Finally, you have a federal payroll tax (another form of income tax that people in P&N forget about) of 7.65%.

I'll let you do that last little bit of math. Hint: your $14k number is a bit high, but it is in the ballpark.

 

[kranky]

Nice work, dullard.

OP, if you get paid bi-weekly (that is, every other week), then don't make the mistake I see a lot of our new hires make. They developed budgets based on taking their annual salary, subtracting taxes, and then dividing the rest by 12 to see how much take-home pay they would have each month. This will overstate your monthly take-home pay by about 8% for the months you are paid twice.

If you get paid bi-weekly, you will get paid 26 times a year. That means in most months you get two paychecks, and two months of the year you will get three.

 

[Beattie]

Social security is really a trivial amount. Just figure like 30% of what you make is actual take home and you wont be far off.

 

[MrChad]

http://www.paycheckcity.com

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Beattie
Social security is really a trivial amount. Just figure like 30% of what you make is actual take home and you wont be far off.

How I wish I could keep that 7.65% for myself. (Although technically, 1.45% of that amount is for Medicare and not Social Security.)

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: TheWart
hi all,

snip.... Is there any site I can go to that has some sort of calculator? I am trying to figure out my take-home pay each month. -snip-


I would appreciate any and all help....thanks!

The IRS produces a booklet that gives withholding tables. You merely find the correct pay period (weekly, biweekly, monthly etc), your filing status (likely "single") and the number of exemptions (likely "1" until you purchase a home or are otherwise able to itemize deductions).

The booklet is called Employers Circular E, publication 15 IIRC. I prefer the hard copy to the online edition. Just go to a local IRS office and copies are usually available in a rack in the lobby.

Basically same thing for state withholding.

Or, you could just call the HR department of your new employer and ask if they can give you the info. (They'll be using the same tables in the Circular E publication).

Fern