question about salary after taxes ... seems like they literally take almost half?

[miri]

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: shadow9d9
Move to a state without a state income tax, like Florida : ).

Don't states like that have higher real estate taxes which means only those who own real estate (richer people) are taxed?

a lot of the states without state income taxes have high tourism rates

In Texas, they make a lot of money from hotel and car rental taxes which are very high. San Antonio is a huge convention town, so Texas makes a ton of money from out of state visitors, same with Florida with vacationers.

 

[XZeroII]

and Sales Tax. Everyone seems to be forgetting about sales tax. We should try to find out exactly how much of every dollar goes to the gov't. As to OP said, I bet it is around 50%.

 

[T9D]

Yeah it's pretty jacked man. Really puts a damper on feeling accomplished.

 

[fatpat268]

I'd rather have a state income tax in texas, to be honest.

Compared to (most) other states, our property and sales taxes are high as hell. It's ridiculous.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: phatj
ok from taxes.yahoo.com i was looking at the different federal and state tax brackets

it looks like my wife and I will be taxed federally at 33% and state at 7.5%....

So that is a total tax of 40.5%.

Now still being a student i never really noticed being taxed much ... in fact i always looked forward to april 15 cuz i knew i'd be getting a tax refund.

so when i get my real job... i'll be taxed 40.5%. Now I know there are a lot of things you can "deduct" for to lower how much of your salary you actually lose.

So I assume that most people don't lose the exact amount of their tax bracket to taxes? Realistically -- and again im not familiar with different kinds of tax deductions but i assume -- if i am buying a house and investing into retirement and investing into college funds for my children etc -- should I really expect a total tax rate close to 40%? Or can people lower that drastically most of the time?

EDIT: im not complaining about the taxes... just asking questions cuz im curious

Actually, after deductions (and you will have deductions), you will pay the following tax percentages:

10% on the first $15,100 of income
15% from 15,100 to 61,300 of income
25% from 61,300 to 123,700 of income
28% from 123,700 to 188,450 of income
33% from 188,450 to 336,550 of income
35% from 336,550 to unlimited


You will not average 33% federal tax unless you get well into the millions and the 35% tax bracket to bring your average up.

Not advocating taxes here, just pointing out the obvious.

 

[shadow9d9]

Originally posted by: her209

Originally posted by: shadow9d9
Move to a state without a state income tax, like Florida : ).

Don't states like that have higher real estate taxes which means only those who own real estate (richer people) are taxed?

Not that I am aware of... do you mean property taxes? Because the property taxes are much much lower than JErsey, where I moved from.. which had 6% income tax too..

 

[Taggart]

Originally posted by: Dark4ng3l

Originally posted by: acemcmac

Originally posted by: Rickten
social security pisses me off even more.

same.

I also HATE that my tax money pays for that god forsaken war in Iraq.

Actually China is paying for the war in Iraq.

:thumbsup:

 

[Descartes]

So I assume that most people don't lose the exact amount of their tax bracket to taxes? Realistically -- and again im not familiar with different kinds of tax deductions but i assume -- if i am buying a house and investing into retirement and investing into college funds for my children etc -- should I really expect a total tax rate close to 40%? Or can people lower that drastically most of the time?

This suggests a misunderstanding of taxable income as far as I can tell. You don't minimize your tax rate, you minimize your income. That might seem pedantic, but it's important to make that distinction. Find ways to reduce your tax liability and you'll reduce your tax rate. Also, for most people, unless you have an income just over a certain tax bracket you won't likely find enough deductions to get you under.

I reduce my liability through the following ways: 2 401ks, 1 SEP IRA, a 529 plan, a variable life insurance policy, disability policy, commercial real estate investment, and various strategies used on non-qualified accounts so I don't get killed with capital gains taxes (e.g. tax-free municipal bonds). I can reduce my tax liability by as much as ~$60k+ a year. That's huge. Many of these things are only available if you are self-employed though.

If you will be in the 33+% bracket you'll need a good CPA/financial person. It really can mean the difference between retiring early wealthy or not retiring at all.

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: Amused

The only "whiny bitches" are those who seek to punish success because they lack the ambition to make that much money themselves.

right, because you can ONLY have ambition to make money. you can't have ambition to help people (instant sh!tty paycheck), or create any type of art that doesn't suck (instant NO paycheck), or teach people (instant sh!tty paycheck plus certifications on your dime), etc. those things aren't ambition. those things lead to whiny bitches. fvck my teachers, all of them were whiny bitches and i don't owe anything to them.

:roll: X 1,000,000

 

[jfall]

Try living in Canada. I pay about $220 on every $1,000 I make. Plus 16% tax on anything I buy

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: AgentJean

Originally posted by: smack Down

it looks like my wife and I will be taxed federally at 33% and state at 7.5%....

So that is a total tax of 40.5%.

33% $154,801-336,550 $188,451-336,550 $94,226-168,275 $171,651-336,550

Ugh whiny little bitchs complaining about taxes when your pay is almost 200k.

Uh and your not really paying 33% you pay 33% on every dollar you earn over those amounts and upto those amounts you pay less.

Shut up you communist. Everyone should be taxed at the same percentage. You want equality after all don't you?

On yeah, I forgot, Communism is a different standard of equality for different people.

WTF? did you just choose some random post to start your rant on? did you sign up just to make that post?

"I like orange juice."
"OMG SHUT UP YOU COMMIE!!! FLORIDA ORANGE JUICE IS MADE BY CUBAN EEEMAGRANT COMMIES!!!"

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: jfall
Try living in Canada. I pay about $220 on every $1,000 I make. Plus 16% tax on anything I buy

you suck at teh math. most of us would love to pay a mere 22% income tax.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain

Originally posted by: jfall
Try living in Canada. I pay about $220 on every $1,000 I make. Plus 16% tax on anything I buy

you suck at teh math. most of us would love to pay a mere 22% income tax.

Define "most"? The "AVERAGE" US citizen pays less "income tax" than that, including state and local income taxes. Throw in lower sales taxes (than Canada) and it would be less. Of course, Canada has a socialized healthcare system to pay for.

 

[BigToque]

There should be no income tax, only consumption tax. You shouldn't be punished for what you earn.

 

[SoftwareEng]

Thank you for your contribution to the highly popular and effective war in Iraq.

G.W. Bush

 

[SoftwareEng]

Originally posted by: BigToque
There should be no income tax, only consumption tax. You shouldn't be punished for what you earn.

You can't possibly think that, or you'd be paying 50% sales tax.

 

[cHeeZeFacTory]

yea the tax i'm seeing is crazy

I got a job that paid 20K+ more than my old job. After taxes I'm making only ~11K more. Somehow my california state tax tripled.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain

Originally posted by: Amused

The only "whiny bitches" are those who seek to punish success because they lack the ambition to make that much money themselves.

right, because you can ONLY have ambition to make money. you can't have ambition to help people (instant sh!tty paycheck), or create any type of art that doesn't suck (instant NO paycheck), or teach people (instant sh!tty paycheck plus certifications on your dime), etc. those things aren't ambition. those things lead to whiny bitches. fvck my teachers, all of them were whiny bitches and i don't owe anything to them.

:roll: X 1,000,000

If you choose to go into a field that makes little to no money, don't whine about those who do make money. Your poverty is self imposed and NOT anyone else's problem.

Yes, you're still a whiny little bitch if you're complaining about what other's make. Even worse when you advocate punishing them for their success.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: cHeeZeFacTory
yea the tax i'm seeing is crazy

I'm got a job that paid 20K+ more than my old job. After taxes I'm making only ~11K more. Somehow my california state tax tripled.

The highest marginal federal rate is 35% and the highest marginal California rate is 9.3%. A total of 44.3%. Are you in the 35% federal income bracket?

35% from 336,550 to unlimited so you would need to make above $336,550 "before" your raise to receive only 11k of your 20k raise.

 

[Jassi]

Originally posted by: jfall
Try living in Canada. I pay about $220 on every $1,000 I make. Plus 16% tax on anything I buy

Move to Alberta

 

[Corporate Thug]

get yourself a good CPA and get every penny back

 

[Descartes]

Originally posted by: Corporate Thug
get yourself a good CPA and get every penny back

Yeah... right.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Originally posted by: AgentJean

Originally posted by: smack Down

it looks like my wife and I will be taxed federally at 33% and state at 7.5%....

So that is a total tax of 40.5%.

33% $154,801-336,550 $188,451-336,550 $94,226-168,275 $171,651-336,550

Ugh whiny little bitchs complaining about taxes when your pay is almost 200k.

Uh and your not really paying 33% you pay 33% on every dollar you earn over those amounts and upto those amounts you pay less.

Shut up you communist. Everyone should be taxed at the same percentage. You want equality after all don't you?

On yeah, I forgot, Communism is a different standard of equality for different people.

Umm, a different tax rate based on income is not Communism. But thanks for being a part of the conversation.

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: SoftwareEng

Originally posted by: BigToque
There should be no income tax, only consumption tax. You shouldn't be punished for what you earn.

You can't possibly think that, or you'd be paying 50% sales tax.

...?

http://www.fairtax.org/

 

[cHeeZeFacTory]

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: cHeeZeFacTory
yea the tax i'm seeing is crazy

I'm got a job that paid 20K+ more than my old job. After taxes I'm making only ~11K more. Somehow my california state tax tripled.

The highest marginal federal rate is 35% and the highest marginal California rate is 9.3%. A total of 44.3%. Are you in the 35% federal income bracket?

35% from 336,550 to unlimited so you would need to make above $336,550 "before" your raise to receive only 11k of your 20k raise.

I'm making no where near 300k. I'm still in the same 25% fed bracket as before. But comparing my post tax pay of my old job and new job, I'm only making 11-12k more.

It may be because i currently have 0 exemptions on fed, 0 in state, whereas in my old job I had 1,1 for fed and state.