Dude, I was going to say that I pay close to the same tax rate and I have fucking outstanding amenities, ie: free healthcare including some dental, heavily subsidized world class (actually) transit, free access to parks and maintained trails; amenities and subsidized gyms/pools…the list goes on.
It always amazes me how much Americans pay and how little they actually get in return. Like, where does the money go??
yes- since so much of that would come from the locals (parks, ect) and it all goes to stadiums that the taxpayer pays for- and then it is just gifted to a billionaire to do as they want.
massive tax breaks given by republicans to their rich friends.. Reagan, little Bush, and Trump, for starters..
Reagan started the ball rolling downhill by cutting the top tax bracket to 27%. Then he had to raise taxes 3 times AND tax social security income to reduce the deficit he created.
When Clinton left office, he had a budget in place that would produce a SURPLUS. So what does little Bush do when he took office? Blew it, by giving tax breaks to his rich friends. Which resulted in severe cutbacks, and ended with him giving trillions to banks that made bad financial decisions, and demanded the government bail them out. Trumps' budget caused the biggest deficit in history, because - guess what he did - do I have to repeat myself?
The problem is not spending, it's the fact the top tier incomes pay less taxed percentage wise, than the rest of us peons. Want to actually DO something about middle class taxes? Then put the top tiered tax rates back to (the last great Republican) President Eisenhower had them. Then we can reverse Trump's tax plan that increased taxes on the middle class. As long as Republicans are in power, this will not happen, so vote them out of office.
And, very crucially, education. Especially university education. Public universities are usually not free in the USA (not even close), while in most other developed countries they are either heavily subsidized or free. This is how we have more than 1 trillion USD in educational debt
We really are not getting much for what we pay for
Forgot about mentioning our education system! Yes, even though our (Canadian) public education system can feel lacking at times; we generally have a pretty high standard of education here. There are even plenty of bursaries available for post secondary and even investment vehicles specifically designed for post-secondary education. For example the RESP account; an investment account given to you at birth w/ matching govt contributions.
Private school (upto gr.12) feels completely unnecessary living here; but I don’t think that’s the same experience most Americans have. Public school (non-charter or non-private) seem to get the shit end of the stick.
Pfft, your education system is so great huh? I bet you don't have active shooter drills there! How are your kids supposed to know what to do when someone shows up to shoot a bunch of people?!
^Do ^I ^really ^need ^the ^/s?
I feel like the simplest solution to school shootings is to redesign & reconstruct public schools to have lots of nooks & crannies, then teach children to get really good at hide and seek. Best case scenario, school shooters could hunt them down 3 at a time, more realistically spending minutes to only find one cowering child.
Overall, should drastically improve the rate at which they're able to target mass amounts of people. Sensible gun legislation, better metal health care, or limiting access to one of the 400 million American firearms are simply not reasonable or realistic propositions.
I likely do need the /s
So, here it is;
/s
Believe it or not, healthcare.
We pay more for it than you do. We'd save money by nationalizing it. The confounding variable here is insurance companies, which are sucking a ton of money out of the system
What? A completely redundant intermediary between patient and provider might exist solely to extract money from people who are sick or injured and need help? A major source of revenue in the USA is cynical, borderline sociopathic extortion of her most desperate? Well colour me shocked.
Don't forget that there are business around filing our yearly taxes even though filing taxes is 100 percent free. Best part is the IRS already knows how much we made and whether we owe money or they owe us money.
It goes to absolutely outrageous government military contracts. People get out of the military and work for military contractors because they get paid 5-10x for the exact thing they did in the military. Plus, grossly bloated prices for military equipment. It’s truly disgusting.
That was my first thought when I paid income taxes in the US in NYC for the first time. It was about the same as what taxes were in France, where I used to live. But you got nothing for it: public schools with the bare minimum, third world subways, and the major scam that is the healthcare system to name a few.
Yeah. I just plugged £1m into a UK tax calculator and it suggests slightly more take home pay (£542k) than the OP, which is very surprising as I always thought taxes in US were much lower due to healthcare being separate.
Most of our health insurance companies are government subsidized anyways, which means we are paying for it with our taxes and THEN turning around and paying full market rate for insurance.
I've yet to meet someone against free Healthcare that ALSO knew we are paying for everything twice. It's a scam.
Duh, how do you think these guys start in office??? Pass laws to help the trillion dollar pharma companies make more money to then fund more politicians, etc
> He almost certainly pays far less than what he's claiming.
More importantly, almost nobody is getting paid $1m in cash a year.
They're getting $300k cash and $700k worth of stock or some shit like that.
The OP graphic is a poor person's fictional concept of a rich person's tax return.
FICA taxes are only applied to the first 168,000 of income. It's capped at that. Nice regressive tax, that is. So paying 32k for FICA is absolute BS as well. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/cbb.html
The marginal tax rate in the OP is 53%, which is the same for a British Columbian. But beyond this there is no surprise expense that can be incurred to a person living frugally. If you're feeling kinda off, maybe a heavy chest that feels wrong, just walk into the nearest ER and get checked out.
Heck, my pharmacy asks if the additional charge for a medication is OK and it's literally $6. They feel really bad when I have to pay an extra $40 for something special.
Yes, there are waits usually. But if it's serious you can get treated and there isnt any financial stress in doing so. Country-to-country we have an extra 6 years of additional life expectancy up here. Wouldn't trade that for anything.
Fight for your healthcare!
Pedantically there’s another ~$9800 or so in FICA income taxes paid by this person’s employer.
Anyone making this much on a W2 has healthcare… I pay nothing for my HSA (technically they pay me $1500) against an $8000 deductible, but I contribute the family max to the HSA ($8300)so that gets me another $3000 in tax savings so net/net my real max cost is maybe $3500 a year to hit the deductible before 90% copay kicks in, and then the and out of pocket isn’t far behind.
Because I max my HSA over the years I’ve got 50K in it (and invest it) so it produces enough growth to basically cover that delta. I still am annoyed by our healthcare system, but this guy isn’t going broke from breaking a leg exactly.
We also have depending where you live, sales tax, property tax (I got 12K in this alone), and other consumption taxes, ad Valorium vehicle registration fees, etc.
The US income tax system is highly progressive (more so than most of Europe), and on the high end the brackets are not that different. If we want similar social safety nets it’s not the billionaire rich paying for it. It’s the middle class and wealthy paying more. I’m ok with this, but think we need to be grown ups and look at how the UK and Dutch pay for it.
Yeah, I've made slightly more than half what he did in post-tax income as pre-tax income one year, ever.
I worked 84-100 hours a week in a trade for the entire year. I don't even actually remember any of that year because I doubt I ever got more than 4-5 hours of sleep in a night with 12-16 hours a day of work without a single day off. Like the whole year is pretty much a blank other than a few things that happened at work.
Oh god no. I'm old and grumpy now.
At best I'll do 7-12s for a few weeks at a time because it lets me take several weeks off when I do. Even then I get grumpy when I hear 12s and start planning my exit from whatever job it is.
Gotta be careful doing that, i quite literally died putting in those kinds of hours and now im all busted up and broken down and make less than a grand a month on disability (slightly over 700$ a month actually). Its a pretty miserable existence to live off that little. But at least i paid off all my crap before all that, but now i make so lil i cant afford upkeep on my house or anything so its just slowly going to shit in front of my eyes while i struggle to pay the bills after burning all my savings up just trying to get disability in the first place.
I got put on disability at the ripe old age of 32, which is no small feat, but I was born withbsome pretty awful medical conditions. I was basically check to check or less before that, then had to move in with my parents.
I realized SSDI (disability) is fucked. I was told to live off of 1200$/month for the rest of my life. So I worked as hard as I could, changed my diet, saw a therapist, and it took 5+ years with my parents.
I eventually got healthier, and at 38 got my foot in the door with an entry level IT job at a multi billion dollar video game developer. I'm now 41, and make close to six figures. My fiancee makes even more as a 3d enviornment artist. I feel like my life is just starting, but I always have to worry about my medical issues flairing up as I have so little control over that. I worry almost everyday about loosing my fiancee and having to move back in with my parents and that 1200$. I know that 1200$ probably sounds amazing to you, sorry for that. I just wanted to point out how terrible that system is. It isn't meant to actually help people get to a better place in life. A lot of times it locks you into to a life of perpetual "not enough" ness...if that makes sense. Most people on SDI have over half their check go to some sort of income dependent rent at a facility that's disgusting, and then are left with a few hundred bucks after main bills are paid. After food, doctors, meds, that's usually gone...
Sorry you're in the position that you are, and hope you still find some enjoyments in your life.
I average the same and it’s not fun here, my man makes just a few dollars an hour more than me and we have a kid …. We can’t save but we are keeping our heads above water and that’s considered “good”
44,000 a month is astronomical
Like I average 32-35k a year and my job does not guarantee 40 hours and OT. Is extremely restricted (restaurant manager at a very sexiest company for a woman to get get promoted we have 12 more hoops the jump through the men just have to show up late to every shift and bam promotion) I’m trying to leave and get into property management but it’s hard to get out with the false hiring that so many companies are doing. On top of companies that are lowballing so much that it’s not even worth looking at. Requires at least 4-6 year degrees and paying 16$-18$ like are you serious?!
I know how to make it, but never have because I didn't want to invest in making jams, jellies, and preserves. But with that money I'd make all kinds of pinecone flavors.
If you make $1m, all in wages (not in dividends or stock sales), have no write offs, etc.
Realistically, the effective tax rate is going to be much lower
This isn’t real, this is theoretical. But yes, this imaginary rich person who makes all income in pure salary and has no write offs needs a better accountant.
I’m upper middle class in CA- my effective tax rate is high, but it’s just as high as it was when I was single and working class.
Max out 401k and HSA
Charitable deductions
Mortgage interest
Dependent care FSA
A good chunk of our salary is stock options we hold until it’s at the long term gains rate, or RSUs
And we’re two regular people employed by companies. Self employed, mega rich, day traders have even more “write offs”.
To be fair, it's not theoretical. An L7 or above at Meta (or P-Staff at most FAANG level companies) will make that much in wages and stock awards, and the latter are treated as regular income on the W2 at the time of vesting.
Yeah, that’s me. Over 1m wage income, FAANG. Similar tax rate. There’s not much you can do to save on taxes. A little bit on 401k and HSA and that’s it.
The tax system in the US disincentivizes you to actually work, while incentivizing passive income (not working) in all kind of ways through endless tax breaks.
The system is designed to preserve wealth instead of building it. If I lose money on passive income I can deduct those losses from future earnings, if I lose my job after paying 0.5m in wage taxes I get nothing.
Yeah. $0 retirement? No way. Plus likely mortgage interest deduction, etc.
People with this kind of $$$ can afford money managers and accountants who can bring that tax rate waaaay down.
My wife and I make way way less money and we have a financial advisor and accountant. The advisor has us saving an insane amount and the tax guy saves us a ton on taxes. We pay them less than $800 total and they're worth tens of thousands to our annual savings.
Yeah, there’s no fucking way this guy pays more than a total of 30% of that million. Unless maybe he’s single, renting, with zero deductions and zero contributions to retirement. .
He doesn't make that much. He just plugged those numbers into a basic tax calculator and then started whinging about it online as if this somehow effects his 20k a year job in Idaho because of course when he does start to make a million dollars a year, he wants that tax rate to already be much lower. Because he will make that much. One day. Soon-ish.
It is from this site: [https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#ECciLuVTEa](https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#ECciLuVTEa)
Mortgage interest deduction alone on a house in the upper six digits is no joke. Don't even get me started on business deductions. There's very little you can't write off, especially if you have no shame or ethics.
This is wildly unrelated, but I’m tired and have adhd so my mind wanders.
Everyone else pronounces comfortable and comfortably with the ‘t’ and ‘r’ switched, right? Like com-ftr-ble and com-ftr-bly. But then regular “comfort” is pronounced normally, with the r sound before the t.
Well, I looked it up, and Google confirms that the American pronunciation switches the consonants around, so it’s not just me. But it’s weird, isn’t it?
Now thinking about it further, it makes sense. Regarding “comfortable,” we drop the ‘a’ sound (and largely reduce the second ‘o’) to speak more quickly. If you try to say it with the consonants the right way around, it just feels wrong. Specifically, having the ‘t’ and ‘b’ sounds right after each other like that. Im not thinking too hard about it, but I think the only English words that have ‘tb’ in them are compound words, like “outback.” So ‘tb’ is just not a natural English sound, which is why we switch the t and r to have a more natural consonant combination, ‘rb’ instead of ‘tb.’ I can name several words with that combo: barb, curb, urban, orb, marble
I would’ve loved to get a degree in linguistics if there were a clear career for it other than translation or teaching
…Anyways, yeah, rich people suck
I think about this all the time as well. I started pronouncing it phonetically for a few days and it made me sound like a pretentious ass hole (I work in health care, we use that word a lot).
We need to, but never will, go back to the Eisenhower days: For married people filing jointly in 1953 any income above $200,000 was taxed at 90%, above $300,000 at 91%, and above $400,000 at 92%.
$1 billion taxed at 92% is still $80,000,000
No local income taxes?!?
Local taxes are used to pay for schools, police, roads, parks, playgrounds, public safety, and core government services vital to human life
Tax this guy more!!!
Depending on where you are, it may be property taxes. In Colorado you have an ownership tax on your vehicle. He’s missing a bunch in that list. Still way out of touch, but he skipped a bunch.
Yep, local Governments in CA usually get their money from property taxes, and sometimes additional sales taxes (which tend to impact low income people more).
Property taxes are unfortunately a bit hamstrung by Prop 13. Local govts supplement some of the lost property tax revenue through taxes on gasoline, alcohol, cigarettes, and food delivery. Parking fees is another big income source.
Local taxes, county, township and school are usually separate bills that you revive based on your property value.
Are your local taxes deducted from your pay?
We don’t have local income tax. In California it’s Federal and State only. Locally, there are property taxes, and sales tax. There are also bond measures which pay for a lot of local stuff. None of those come out of your income.
Someone correct me, but doesn't a person stop paying into FICA when they hit $168,000?
....which would mean that $31,632 is actually $5308. and it doesnt matter if you live in South Dakota or Cali, the federal tax rate is what it is...
Not sure why the state tax above is different than the actual state tax, but its wrong also.
Yeah, there's all kinds of stuff wrong with these calculations. Someone's taking the tax code at face value, but not applying for any deductions or credits, and considering all money as income. What's more likely is someone making a mill is writing off mortgage and business expenses, and very likely not paying income tax. That kind of money doesn't come from income, it comes from investments and business.
Uncle Sam is normally a reference to the US Government. I only see 32.52% going to Uncle Sam. 3.16 is going to insurance which is FICA (Medicare and Social Security) and 11.54 is going to the state... neither are really Uncle Sam.
Medicare and Social Security are administered by the federal government, which collects FICA taxes. I think it’s fair to include that piece in what goes to Uncle Sam.
You’re entirely right on the state income tax portion though.
To be fair, it is kinda crazy. “We live in amerika and we may not have free healthcare but at least we don’t pay crazy taxes like those socialist European countries”.
But when you actually do the math, Americans actually pay more when you factor in premiums and OOP costs for healthcare and other services that other countries include in those taxes.
And taxes hit the poor harder than they hit the wealthy.
Someone who pays 50% taxes on $1 Million goes home with half a million. Lives in luxury.
Someone who pays 50% taxes on $30k goes home with $15k and can't afford both rent and food at the same time.
I can't stop looking at the amount of this theoretical take-home pay and feel bad. that is almost 10 years of pay that I made as a teacher teaching in this country. Why is anyone complaining about getting to keep over half a million per year when the people that are helping to educate our future are living paycheck to paycheck?
I wouldnt mind having over $600k/yr salary, but I guess I am stupid because I need $1m/yr for some fucking reason.
Christ I couldn't imagine making in 2 years what I could optimistically take home after a lifetime of labour.
1. This is assuming no itemized deductions. There is very little chance that this is true.
2. This is assuming all of the compensation is standard income, instead of say, stock options and other instruments that are taxed at a lower rate.
3. It's not "giving back." It's literally paying for the fact that such a person uses public infrastructure at a much higher rate than everyone else - their ability to generate this revenue is somewhat dependent on the infrastructure existing and the economy being stable, their assets being protected by the military, police, etc. If we converted the value of these to a use tax, the cost to such an individual would be fairly high. Pretending that such a person gets no benefit from their tax dollars by calling it "robbery" is absurd.
In reality, the average effective tax rate for taxpayers with AGIs of $10 million or more is usually around 25% because of 1 and 2.
Highway misleadery.
When you do the math that’s 40%. So you’re paying taxes almost as high as someone making 10x what you make. They have no reason to complain. You should be taxed less. And I pay about the same taxes as you so I feel your pain.
They’re probably mad because they want to have a millionaire lifestyle, but because of taxes they can’t wear that badge. They desperately want to be a part of that in-group.
I’ll give the same advice that every pretentious rich fuck gave me: live within your means. You want to be a multimillionaire? Do multimillionaire work. Where’s your multiple streams of income? You can’t be going to yacht parties snortin blow off of some stripper’s tits every weekend. Put your head down and do the work, Bucko.
Just a quick reminder that the insanely wealthy have their money managed in a way that they received covid relief checks, because they've managed to show their income as being low enough to qualify.
The vast majority of people who make that amount yearly pay way, way less than that in taxes. Most people making that money are not getting paid via a W2, normally they are S corp business owners.
It's not the taxes that are the issue, it's what they're doing with those taxes that's shit. We pay and get hardly anything in return unless you're a giant corporation.
As a person who used to do people's taxes, especially high income people, this meme is garbage. There are no listings for what the effective taxable income is, which I'm pretty damn sure would be somewhere south of 600,000 with all the write-offs those people are able to take and bed down. Then they typically also have a business associated with something that loses money and in that business loss they're able to write that off as well which lowers their effective income or taxable income to about half of gross revenue and then they pay taxes on that money. I get the sentiment of the meme but at least be one that's accurate for crying out loud
I pay almost the same (%) and i have free healthcare
Dude, I was going to say that I pay close to the same tax rate and I have fucking outstanding amenities, ie: free healthcare including some dental, heavily subsidized world class (actually) transit, free access to parks and maintained trails; amenities and subsidized gyms/pools…the list goes on. It always amazes me how much Americans pay and how little they actually get in return. Like, where does the money go??
Stock buybacks for defense contractors
And bailouts for international corporations.
Yachts for executives who saved money by laying off working-class people and denying claims
Don’t forget, they put the extra work load on the rest of the team but the pay stays the same
"We're a family"
landleeches
And funding proxy wars nobody wants
yachts are tax deductible...
and fucking banks
"Too big to fail" Riiiiiiiiight.
And subsidies for companies that exploit national resources for profit.
And billions in military budgets, and billions in foreign aid used to strong-arm nation leaders
Stadiums
yes- since so much of that would come from the locals (parks, ect) and it all goes to stadiums that the taxpayer pays for- and then it is just gifted to a billionaire to do as they want.
massive tax breaks given by republicans to their rich friends.. Reagan, little Bush, and Trump, for starters.. Reagan started the ball rolling downhill by cutting the top tax bracket to 27%. Then he had to raise taxes 3 times AND tax social security income to reduce the deficit he created. When Clinton left office, he had a budget in place that would produce a SURPLUS. So what does little Bush do when he took office? Blew it, by giving tax breaks to his rich friends. Which resulted in severe cutbacks, and ended with him giving trillions to banks that made bad financial decisions, and demanded the government bail them out. Trumps' budget caused the biggest deficit in history, because - guess what he did - do I have to repeat myself? The problem is not spending, it's the fact the top tier incomes pay less taxed percentage wise, than the rest of us peons. Want to actually DO something about middle class taxes? Then put the top tiered tax rates back to (the last great Republican) President Eisenhower had them. Then we can reverse Trump's tax plan that increased taxes on the middle class. As long as Republicans are in power, this will not happen, so vote them out of office.
And, very crucially, education. Especially university education. Public universities are usually not free in the USA (not even close), while in most other developed countries they are either heavily subsidized or free. This is how we have more than 1 trillion USD in educational debt We really are not getting much for what we pay for
Forgot about mentioning our education system! Yes, even though our (Canadian) public education system can feel lacking at times; we generally have a pretty high standard of education here. There are even plenty of bursaries available for post secondary and even investment vehicles specifically designed for post-secondary education. For example the RESP account; an investment account given to you at birth w/ matching govt contributions. Private school (upto gr.12) feels completely unnecessary living here; but I don’t think that’s the same experience most Americans have. Public school (non-charter or non-private) seem to get the shit end of the stick.
Pfft, your education system is so great huh? I bet you don't have active shooter drills there! How are your kids supposed to know what to do when someone shows up to shoot a bunch of people?! ^Do ^I ^really ^need ^the ^/s?
Just encourage them to join the police, then they can stand outside and watch.
I feel like the simplest solution to school shootings is to redesign & reconstruct public schools to have lots of nooks & crannies, then teach children to get really good at hide and seek. Best case scenario, school shooters could hunt them down 3 at a time, more realistically spending minutes to only find one cowering child. Overall, should drastically improve the rate at which they're able to target mass amounts of people. Sensible gun legislation, better metal health care, or limiting access to one of the 400 million American firearms are simply not reasonable or realistic propositions. I likely do need the /s So, here it is; /s
Military and socialism for the rich.
Believe it or not, healthcare. We pay more for it than you do. We'd save money by nationalizing it. The confounding variable here is insurance companies, which are sucking a ton of money out of the system
What? A completely redundant intermediary between patient and provider might exist solely to extract money from people who are sick or injured and need help? A major source of revenue in the USA is cynical, borderline sociopathic extortion of her most desperate? Well colour me shocked.
Don't forget that there are business around filing our yearly taxes even though filing taxes is 100 percent free. Best part is the IRS already knows how much we made and whether we owe money or they owe us money.
The military 😂
Military contractors*
Well, in fairness, it also goes to the lobbying firms employed by those Military Contractors. /s
Well we have to have enough money to leave all our weapons and machinery there when we pull out for no reason
Title of Americas sextape?
We Americans realize that sacrifices have to be made so Bezos can go into orbit in his flying dick.
I agree . I know we have our problem as Canadians but at least I know I am getting “something “ ….
It goes to absolutely outrageous government military contracts. People get out of the military and work for military contractors because they get paid 5-10x for the exact thing they did in the military. Plus, grossly bloated prices for military equipment. It’s truly disgusting.
That was my first thought when I paid income taxes in the US in NYC for the first time. It was about the same as what taxes were in France, where I used to live. But you got nothing for it: public schools with the bare minimum, third world subways, and the major scam that is the healthcare system to name a few.
Yeah. I just plugged £1m into a UK tax calculator and it suggests slightly more take home pay (£542k) than the OP, which is very surprising as I always thought taxes in US were much lower due to healthcare being separate.
Most of our health insurance companies are government subsidized anyways, which means we are paying for it with our taxes and THEN turning around and paying full market rate for insurance. I've yet to meet someone against free Healthcare that ALSO knew we are paying for everything twice. It's a scam.
We also get to pay for the profits of all the middlemen that line their pockets with our money.
I'm a HUGE fan of unemployment rates increasing to 100% when it comes to insurance leeches.
Duh, how do you think these guys start in office??? Pass laws to help the trillion dollar pharma companies make more money to then fund more politicians, etc
This guy is showing the tax rate without all of the deductions and accounting tricks. He almost certainly pays far less than what he's claiming.
> He almost certainly pays far less than what he's claiming. More importantly, almost nobody is getting paid $1m in cash a year. They're getting $300k cash and $700k worth of stock or some shit like that. The OP graphic is a poor person's fictional concept of a rich person's tax return.
FICA taxes are only applied to the first 168,000 of income. It's capped at that. Nice regressive tax, that is. So paying 32k for FICA is absolute BS as well. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/cbb.html
🛎 🛎 🛎
Watch it commie /s
In America we overtax our citizens to fund foreign wars, not to provide essential services to our citizens.
It astounds me how much people complain about healthcare like it’s going to take all of our money. We’re already paying so much for healthcare!
The marginal tax rate in the OP is 53%, which is the same for a British Columbian. But beyond this there is no surprise expense that can be incurred to a person living frugally. If you're feeling kinda off, maybe a heavy chest that feels wrong, just walk into the nearest ER and get checked out. Heck, my pharmacy asks if the additional charge for a medication is OK and it's literally $6. They feel really bad when I have to pay an extra $40 for something special. Yes, there are waits usually. But if it's serious you can get treated and there isnt any financial stress in doing so. Country-to-country we have an extra 6 years of additional life expectancy up here. Wouldn't trade that for anything. Fight for your healthcare!
They pay the same % for anti-healthcare. Merica' fuck yeah.
I’ve been told that’s impossible 😠
Pedantically there’s another ~$9800 or so in FICA income taxes paid by this person’s employer. Anyone making this much on a W2 has healthcare… I pay nothing for my HSA (technically they pay me $1500) against an $8000 deductible, but I contribute the family max to the HSA ($8300)so that gets me another $3000 in tax savings so net/net my real max cost is maybe $3500 a year to hit the deductible before 90% copay kicks in, and then the and out of pocket isn’t far behind. Because I max my HSA over the years I’ve got 50K in it (and invest it) so it produces enough growth to basically cover that delta. I still am annoyed by our healthcare system, but this guy isn’t going broke from breaking a leg exactly. We also have depending where you live, sales tax, property tax (I got 12K in this alone), and other consumption taxes, ad Valorium vehicle registration fees, etc. The US income tax system is highly progressive (more so than most of Europe), and on the high end the brackets are not that different. If we want similar social safety nets it’s not the billionaire rich paying for it. It’s the middle class and wealthy paying more. I’m ok with this, but think we need to be grown ups and look at how the UK and Dutch pay for it.
I would eat a fucking pine cone to have that take home pay.
Most people would eat a pinecone to have his take home pay be their pre-tax pay.
I'd eat one from either and/or both ends.
Just the one?!
So many pine cones
It would be my favorite food ever. Sauteed pinecones, steamed pinecones, breaded pinecones, fried pinecones, frozen pinecone ice cream, pinecone pasta, pinecone salad, spinach and pinecone dip, pinecone chips, pinecone pudding, pinecone dumplings, apple pinecone pie, chocolate covered pinecones, pinecone soup, pinecone pinecones, spaghetti and pinecones, baked pinecones, pinecone au gratin, pinecone tacos, pinecone gyros, pinecone curry, pinecone kraut, pinecone vindaloo, pinecone de Verde, pinecone tortas, pinecone teriyaki, pinecone sushi, szechuan pinecone, pinecone gyoza, pinecone stroganoff
Pinecone with peanut butter.
Are you a bird? Sounds like a bird wrote this.
Don't be silly, birds aren't real.
I thought Bubba had come back but instead of shrimp, pinecones. But to be fair, I definitely see bird influence in this comment.
Is that from the earlier AskReddit post about flavor combos?
Bubba, is that you?
Leave me out of this.
If you don't like pinecones, you could try the pinecone hot dish. There's not *much* pinecone in it.
Monty Python❤️🔥
Monty Pinecone
I'll have the pinecone, pinecone, pinecone, pinecone, pinecone, pinecone, pinecone, pinecone, pinecone, pinecone, baked beans, and pinecone.
Ope! Found the Minnesotan.
Pinecone piccata3
Id swallow one whole
Turn that shit sideways and do it for ½ the $ and you have yourself a sellout onlyfans page…
It's $44,000 a month after taxes. I don't even make $4000 a month. And I'm considered well off by today's standards...
Yeah, I've made slightly more than half what he did in post-tax income as pre-tax income one year, ever. I worked 84-100 hours a week in a trade for the entire year. I don't even actually remember any of that year because I doubt I ever got more than 4-5 hours of sleep in a night with 12-16 hours a day of work without a single day off. Like the whole year is pretty much a blank other than a few things that happened at work.
God, I hope you don’t work that many hours anymore. Getting 4-5 hours of sleep will shorten your lifespan. Unfortunately not kidding.
Oh god no. I'm old and grumpy now. At best I'll do 7-12s for a few weeks at a time because it lets me take several weeks off when I do. Even then I get grumpy when I hear 12s and start planning my exit from whatever job it is.
Gotta be careful doing that, i quite literally died putting in those kinds of hours and now im all busted up and broken down and make less than a grand a month on disability (slightly over 700$ a month actually). Its a pretty miserable existence to live off that little. But at least i paid off all my crap before all that, but now i make so lil i cant afford upkeep on my house or anything so its just slowly going to shit in front of my eyes while i struggle to pay the bills after burning all my savings up just trying to get disability in the first place.
I got put on disability at the ripe old age of 32, which is no small feat, but I was born withbsome pretty awful medical conditions. I was basically check to check or less before that, then had to move in with my parents. I realized SSDI (disability) is fucked. I was told to live off of 1200$/month for the rest of my life. So I worked as hard as I could, changed my diet, saw a therapist, and it took 5+ years with my parents. I eventually got healthier, and at 38 got my foot in the door with an entry level IT job at a multi billion dollar video game developer. I'm now 41, and make close to six figures. My fiancee makes even more as a 3d enviornment artist. I feel like my life is just starting, but I always have to worry about my medical issues flairing up as I have so little control over that. I worry almost everyday about loosing my fiancee and having to move back in with my parents and that 1200$. I know that 1200$ probably sounds amazing to you, sorry for that. I just wanted to point out how terrible that system is. It isn't meant to actually help people get to a better place in life. A lot of times it locks you into to a life of perpetual "not enough" ness...if that makes sense. Most people on SDI have over half their check go to some sort of income dependent rent at a facility that's disgusting, and then are left with a few hundred bucks after main bills are paid. After food, doctors, meds, that's usually gone... Sorry you're in the position that you are, and hope you still find some enjoyments in your life.
> i quite literally died putting in those kinds of hours At least you learned how to type as a ghost. Silver lining!
I average the same and it’s not fun here, my man makes just a few dollars an hour more than me and we have a kid …. We can’t save but we are keeping our heads above water and that’s considered “good” 44,000 a month is astronomical
> 44,000 a month is astronomical That's what I make a year with overtime and they're the one getting robbed?!
Like I average 32-35k a year and my job does not guarantee 40 hours and OT. Is extremely restricted (restaurant manager at a very sexiest company for a woman to get get promoted we have 12 more hoops the jump through the men just have to show up late to every shift and bam promotion) I’m trying to leave and get into property management but it’s hard to get out with the false hiring that so many companies are doing. On top of companies that are lowballing so much that it’s not even worth looking at. Requires at least 4-6 year degrees and paying 16$-18$ like are you serious?!
It’s literally enough to buy a new car every month. Or have a down payment after maybe 3 months. Wild.
Not that finding a home for $750,000 is particularly easy in California... though this doesn't dismiss this being an absurd amount of money.
Well OBVIOUSLY, the guy is doing eleven times the work you are doing! /s
Post-taxes, that's somewhere in the ballpark of *$253 per hour.*
How many pinecones with that get me though?
Can confirm
I’m fucking allergic to nuts and I’d do it
You could buy a 4 bdrm house full of epi pens
Are pinecones a nut?
You guys are getting paid?
Yes, I would gladly take the final cash after tax and pay tax on it 🤷🏻♂️
I'd eat a pine cone for the amount he paid to the state in pre-tax pay.
One? Fuck, give me a barrel of 'em!
At this point we should be feeling lucky we don't have to turn to pinecones out of sheer necessity.
agreeing with the spirit of this. with that sort of pay, you could buy copious amounts of pine cone jam (which is kinda good ngl)
TiL there's pine cone jam
Not related but there’s also Kudzu jelly as well
Sigh, I did not need another novelty jam, but I am almost out of Cloudberry preserves.
I know how to make it, but never have because I didn't want to invest in making jams, jellies, and preserves. But with that money I'd make all kinds of pinecone flavors.
I'd eat a pinecone every fucking hour to have that pay lol
Do i have to swallow it whole, or can i break it into peices and take my time? Either way, in in
I bet you'd be working way less than what you work now too. So you can take your time chewing that pinecone
I'd eat a pinecone to earn his annual taxes ... even just his state tax.
Hell, I’d eat it after your done with it for half of the half
I would fuck an eating pine cone for that take home pay.
I'll eat it for $20
530K?! How will I eat! /S
Can’t even buy a cyber truck because it won’t fit in the garage of the $7m condo building
I'd eat one daily for that pay.
Sounds like somebody aught to cut back on the avocado toast and Starbucks.
For real. And the tattoos
I'm waiting for the Batchelor Chow.
How could one possibly survive off of a measly 500k/year?
Yeah the audacity. It’ll take them 2 years to be a millionaire instead of just one. They’ll be so old by then.
If you make $1m, all in wages (not in dividends or stock sales), have no write offs, etc. Realistically, the effective tax rate is going to be much lower
Yeah, this guy needs a new accountant. There are plenty of tax shelters for people who make that kind of money.
This isn’t real, this is theoretical. But yes, this imaginary rich person who makes all income in pure salary and has no write offs needs a better accountant. I’m upper middle class in CA- my effective tax rate is high, but it’s just as high as it was when I was single and working class. Max out 401k and HSA Charitable deductions Mortgage interest Dependent care FSA A good chunk of our salary is stock options we hold until it’s at the long term gains rate, or RSUs And we’re two regular people employed by companies. Self employed, mega rich, day traders have even more “write offs”.
To be fair, it's not theoretical. An L7 or above at Meta (or P-Staff at most FAANG level companies) will make that much in wages and stock awards, and the latter are treated as regular income on the W2 at the time of vesting.
Yeah, that’s me. Over 1m wage income, FAANG. Similar tax rate. There’s not much you can do to save on taxes. A little bit on 401k and HSA and that’s it. The tax system in the US disincentivizes you to actually work, while incentivizing passive income (not working) in all kind of ways through endless tax breaks. The system is designed to preserve wealth instead of building it. If I lose money on passive income I can deduct those losses from future earnings, if I lose my job after paying 0.5m in wage taxes I get nothing.
Are your options and stock grants taxed as income?
This comment should be higher
Yeah. $0 retirement? No way. Plus likely mortgage interest deduction, etc. People with this kind of $$$ can afford money managers and accountants who can bring that tax rate waaaay down.
My wife and I make way way less money and we have a financial advisor and accountant. The advisor has us saving an insane amount and the tax guy saves us a ton on taxes. We pay them less than $800 total and they're worth tens of thousands to our annual savings.
Yeah, there’s no fucking way this guy pays more than a total of 30% of that million. Unless maybe he’s single, renting, with zero deductions and zero contributions to retirement. .
"I make 26 times the median salary, why am I only getting 14 peoples worth of money" -some fuckstick
With $0 retirement contributions.
bro just used the most basic tax rate calculator, this includes no deductions of any kind, which obviously is very unrealistic.
If they made it realistic it wouldn't feed into their narrative.
to me it is actually kind of worse how much you can shell game away from the IRS...
Seriously, this guy either doesn’t make that much money or needs a much better tax accountant.
He doesn't make that much. He just plugged those numbers into a basic tax calculator and then started whinging about it online as if this somehow effects his 20k a year job in Idaho because of course when he does start to make a million dollars a year, he wants that tax rate to already be much lower. Because he will make that much. One day. Soon-ish.
It is from this site: [https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#ECciLuVTEa](https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator#ECciLuVTEa)
Okay, now show your deductions.
right? like how much of this gets returned to him around tax time?
probably more than most people yearly income.
Mortgage interest deduction alone on a house in the upper six digits is no joke. Don't even get me started on business deductions. There's very little you can't write off, especially if you have no shame or ethics.
Wow, must be hard living on half a million dollars A YEAR.
Yeah, what a struggle. Must be hard living off more money than most take home in over a decade.
More like 25 plus years that’s at 40k
When I was teaching full time, it would have taken me around a decade to make half a million dollars, and that would be *before* taxes.
> and that would be before taxes. And with 10 years expenses, not 1 year.
If I made $500k/year I’d be verrry comfortably retired after like 10-12 years of working at that rate.
This is wildly unrelated, but I’m tired and have adhd so my mind wanders. Everyone else pronounces comfortable and comfortably with the ‘t’ and ‘r’ switched, right? Like com-ftr-ble and com-ftr-bly. But then regular “comfort” is pronounced normally, with the r sound before the t. Well, I looked it up, and Google confirms that the American pronunciation switches the consonants around, so it’s not just me. But it’s weird, isn’t it? Now thinking about it further, it makes sense. Regarding “comfortable,” we drop the ‘a’ sound (and largely reduce the second ‘o’) to speak more quickly. If you try to say it with the consonants the right way around, it just feels wrong. Specifically, having the ‘t’ and ‘b’ sounds right after each other like that. Im not thinking too hard about it, but I think the only English words that have ‘tb’ in them are compound words, like “outback.” So ‘tb’ is just not a natural English sound, which is why we switch the t and r to have a more natural consonant combination, ‘rb’ instead of ‘tb.’ I can name several words with that combo: barb, curb, urban, orb, marble I would’ve loved to get a degree in linguistics if there were a clear career for it other than translation or teaching …Anyways, yeah, rich people suck
I like the cut of your tangential jib, gov’nuh.
You took me to a place that wasn't this thread, and for that I'm grateful.
I think about this all the time as well. I started pronouncing it phonetically for a few days and it made me sound like a pretentious ass hole (I work in health care, we use that word a lot).
Realistically a lot of people could do it in about 6 starting from nothing.
Wonder if I’ve made that, lifetime.
We need to, but never will, go back to the Eisenhower days: For married people filing jointly in 1953 any income above $200,000 was taxed at 90%, above $300,000 at 91%, and above $400,000 at 92%. $1 billion taxed at 92% is still $80,000,000
No local income taxes?!? Local taxes are used to pay for schools, police, roads, parks, playgrounds, public safety, and core government services vital to human life Tax this guy more!!!
Depending on where you are, it may be property taxes. In Colorado you have an ownership tax on your vehicle. He’s missing a bunch in that list. Still way out of touch, but he skipped a bunch.
Yep, local Governments in CA usually get their money from property taxes, and sometimes additional sales taxes (which tend to impact low income people more).
Property taxes are unfortunately a bit hamstrung by Prop 13. Local govts supplement some of the lost property tax revenue through taxes on gasoline, alcohol, cigarettes, and food delivery. Parking fees is another big income source.
Local taxes, county, township and school are usually separate bills that you revive based on your property value. Are your local taxes deducted from your pay?
We don’t have local income tax. In California it’s Federal and State only. Locally, there are property taxes, and sales tax. There are also bond measures which pay for a lot of local stuff. None of those come out of your income.
You notice he doesn’t pay 6% for fica like the rest of us poors. That’s why social security is going to run out soon.
He has $500k after tax every year. Poor baby.
HOW CAN ONE EVEN LIVE?!
I don’t know, but I’ll give it a try.
500k a year? sure I can tighten the belt with that kinda budget. /s
Can you even afford a belt with only that much?
Bro can barely afford 2 yachts, smh my head
Someone correct me, but doesn't a person stop paying into FICA when they hit $168,000? ....which would mean that $31,632 is actually $5308. and it doesnt matter if you live in South Dakota or Cali, the federal tax rate is what it is... Not sure why the state tax above is different than the actual state tax, but its wrong also.
Yeah, there's all kinds of stuff wrong with these calculations. Someone's taking the tax code at face value, but not applying for any deductions or credits, and considering all money as income. What's more likely is someone making a mill is writing off mortgage and business expenses, and very likely not paying income tax. That kind of money doesn't come from income, it comes from investments and business.
nobody making a million in earned income has 0$ pre-tax retirement deductions either.
Social security stops, Medicare does not. Medicare tax rate actually increases on income above 200,000.
Uncle Sam is normally a reference to the US Government. I only see 32.52% going to Uncle Sam. 3.16 is going to insurance which is FICA (Medicare and Social Security) and 11.54 is going to the state... neither are really Uncle Sam.
Medicare and Social Security are administered by the federal government, which collects FICA taxes. I think it’s fair to include that piece in what goes to Uncle Sam. You’re entirely right on the state income tax portion though.
To be fair, it is kinda crazy. “We live in amerika and we may not have free healthcare but at least we don’t pay crazy taxes like those socialist European countries”.
But when you actually do the math, Americans actually pay more when you factor in premiums and OOP costs for healthcare and other services that other countries include in those taxes.
I would be on your side if it weren't for the fact that poor people get shafted with taxes too - especially if you're single.
And taxes hit the poor harder than they hit the wealthy. Someone who pays 50% taxes on $1 Million goes home with half a million. Lives in luxury. Someone who pays 50% taxes on $30k goes home with $15k and can't afford both rent and food at the same time.
Someone who pays 0% tax on $30k still only goes home with $30k and that wouldn’t cover rent, let alone food.
What do you expect the one percent are extremely out of touch and think that laws and rules shouldn't apply to them
Personally, I expect them to be shamed at every possible juncture for being the greedy dirtbags they are. I encourage anyone to join in!
I can't stop looking at the amount of this theoretical take-home pay and feel bad. that is almost 10 years of pay that I made as a teacher teaching in this country. Why is anyone complaining about getting to keep over half a million per year when the people that are helping to educate our future are living paycheck to paycheck?
I wouldnt mind having over $600k/yr salary, but I guess I am stupid because I need $1m/yr for some fucking reason. Christ I couldn't imagine making in 2 years what I could optimistically take home after a lifetime of labour.
Millionaires have gotten trickled down to the middle class. Pull up a chair fellas.
1. This is assuming no itemized deductions. There is very little chance that this is true. 2. This is assuming all of the compensation is standard income, instead of say, stock options and other instruments that are taxed at a lower rate. 3. It's not "giving back." It's literally paying for the fact that such a person uses public infrastructure at a much higher rate than everyone else - their ability to generate this revenue is somewhat dependent on the infrastructure existing and the economy being stable, their assets being protected by the military, police, etc. If we converted the value of these to a use tax, the cost to such an individual would be fairly high. Pretending that such a person gets no benefit from their tax dollars by calling it "robbery" is absurd. In reality, the average effective tax rate for taxpayers with AGIs of $10 million or more is usually around 25% because of 1 and 2. Highway misleadery.
Oh no! You think he will survive on $43,000 a month?
It’s not even correct since the cap on fica is around 160k.
He could save $115,359 by moving to a state that will be permanently underwater in a few decades
My salary is 100k but I only get to take home like 60k. It’s some bs
When you do the math that’s 40%. So you’re paying taxes almost as high as someone making 10x what you make. They have no reason to complain. You should be taxed less. And I pay about the same taxes as you so I feel your pain.
I'd rather pay 70 percent on a million than 25 percent on 30,000
I mean if someone took half my fucking paycheck and then let Amazon pay zero corporate taxes I’d be pissed off too.
Dude is making $10K a week after taxes and he's complaining? Someone please throw some warm piss in his face to wake him up.
They’re probably mad because they want to have a millionaire lifestyle, but because of taxes they can’t wear that badge. They desperately want to be a part of that in-group. I’ll give the same advice that every pretentious rich fuck gave me: live within your means. You want to be a multimillionaire? Do multimillionaire work. Where’s your multiple streams of income? You can’t be going to yacht parties snortin blow off of some stripper’s tits every weekend. Put your head down and do the work, Bucko.
Just a quick reminder that the insanely wealthy have their money managed in a way that they received covid relief checks, because they've managed to show their income as being low enough to qualify.
Damn, you mean you're only bringing home $44,000 per month in take home pay?
And the rich wonder why we call them the SPOILED LEADERS OF THE GOP HATE PARADE.
TBF, if you earn that much, I'm sure you could afford to pay an accountant to minimise how much tax you pay, or at least maximise your tax return.
Wrong. You’d hire a special accountant or lawyer to figure out how to not pay that much.
The vast majority of people who make that amount yearly pay way, way less than that in taxes. Most people making that money are not getting paid via a W2, normally they are S corp business owners.
I mean, that is a lot
It's not the taxes that are the issue, it's what they're doing with those taxes that's shit. We pay and get hardly anything in return unless you're a giant corporation.
Why is this kUnt'z username blacked out
As a person who used to do people's taxes, especially high income people, this meme is garbage. There are no listings for what the effective taxable income is, which I'm pretty damn sure would be somewhere south of 600,000 with all the write-offs those people are able to take and bed down. Then they typically also have a business associated with something that loses money and in that business loss they're able to write that off as well which lowers their effective income or taxable income to about half of gross revenue and then they pay taxes on that money. I get the sentiment of the meme but at least be one that's accurate for crying out loud