Taxes as a % of Income

[red-beard]

Add it all up, Federal, State, Income, Real Estate and even add in for Sales tax. Estimate how much of your total income turns into taxes.

For me, it is over 30%, but still lower than when I was in California.

[stevepaa]

Why stop there? How about the hidden taxes you pay on all the items you purchase. That would be the tax for commercials, tax on prescriptions for doctor junkets provided by pharmaceutical companies, TV tax to support the athletes, etc.

[masraum]

Tax on Gas, if you smoke tax on tobacco, and do they add tax to alcohol?

[Rick Lee]

Originally posted by stevepaa
Why stop there? How about the hidden taxes you pay on all the items you purchase. That would be the tax for commercials, tax on prescriptions for doctor junkets provided by pharmaceutical companies, TV tax to support the athletes, etc.

Because no gov't. imposed those on me.

[legion]

And we could choose not to buy those things.

Do me a favor Steve, and choose not to pay your taxes. See what happens. Eventually, a man with a gun will show up at your front door.

[Hugh R]

think about it. You pay all the taxes on all labor for every product for which your the end user. You buy a six pack of beer (Joe Six Pack)., as the end user of the beer, you pay all the taxes on the energy and labor to grow the hops, the pesticides, the fuel for the tractor, the pro-rated cost of the tractor, land, water, beer making, mining the Bauxite to me the aluminum can, the brewing, the cardboard for the box for the beer, the 7-11 where you bought it, the store clerk. everything. Your the end user everyone had to make a profit, and that's after they've paid their taxes. I don't know how to calculate these hidden taxes, but the ones I know I pay are greater than 40% of my gross. Hell, I pay more in taxes than the average family of four in the USA earns, and the liberals say I'm getting tax breaks and not paying my fair share. Would someone please tell me what my freakin fair share is?

[red-beard]

According to those who passed the 16th amendment, the income tax was not supposed to be higher than 10%. They did not put that in, since it was assumed it would never get that high...

[Rick Lee]

And wasn't the initial income tax only on those who made $1 million or more? That was real money in those days. Basically, the 16th Amendment was then what the AMT was when it first started - an attempt to make sure the super duper rich "paid their fair share". Look at what both have become.

[red-beard]

Rick, every tax I can think of is intended to "soak the rich". Even sales tax, since necessities are not taxed (Milk, Meat, etc).

Except for "sin" taxes, tobacco, alcohol, lottery tickets

Oh sorry, the last one is the "Stupid" tax. A tax on people who can't figure odds.

[Zef]

Gov take 46 % of my wages...+ 15 % on all the things I buy...!!!

[Christien]

This is really interesting - in fact I was thinking of posting a similar poll not too long ago, mainly because I'm curious to see what a typical middle-class American pays in taxes, income, sales and property.

We've of course got a much different taxation system here in Canada, one that was designed to be half way between European socialism and American laissez-faire capitalism. Since I've become a taxpayer in earnest about 5 years ago (I earned and paid taxes throughout university, but not to any real extent) it's really changed my views on the success of our system.

I think it was supposed to be the best of both worlds, but I'm starting to believe it's the worst. For a family in our income bracket, I think we'd have a much better lifestyle in either the US or a country like Sweden or Norway. The thing that's starting to really burn me up is health care. We pay taxes through the nose for it, yet it's constantly suffering government cutbacks, and because it's gov't provided, there are no alternatives. (private health care in fields covered by gov't coverage is illegal). If we lived in the US, we'd pay less taxes, but pay for use of medical services (or for insurance) and the kinds of hospitals we could afford would provide better and faster service than most here. If we lived in certain European countries, we'd pay a bit more in taxes, but receive much more in return.

Ok, enough of the rant. I pay about 40% income tax, plus another $12K per year for CPP (gov't pension plan - I pay employee plus employer contributions, since I own a one-employee (technically) company). We pay almost $4K per year property taxes. None of these are discretionary taxes, in that I have no say in the amounts. Add in sales taxes (7% provincial, 6% federal) which I don't really have much choice in, as I do have to purchase things, and I'm well over 50%, probably closer to 60%. And yet we had to wait 6 weeks to find a family dr. when we moved to a new city. Our public transit is a joke, and as such we waste more gas sitting in what was recently determined to be the worst metropolitan area (Toronto) in North America for commutes. Our schools are constantly having to fight to keep "non-essential" programs like music and sports, because of cutbacks to salaries and equipment funding.

Un-f$cking-real.

Ok, I need a drink.

[alf]

I really do not mind paying taxes up to a certian point. It does cost money to keep a country running...

[red-beard]

Actually, I just noticed I missed adding in Medicare and Social Security taxes into my numbers. I think I'm near or over 40%.

[red-beard]

37.8%

[artplumber]

+ self employement taxes? Arghhhh!

[gprsh924]

I get paid the bulk of my earnings in cash (I caddy in the summers). I earn little enough money that I won't start filing for another few years...so right now definitely less than 10%

[red-beard]

Originally posted by alf
I really do not mind paying taxes up to a certian point. It does cost money to keep a country running...

And what would that point be? What do you think is fair?

[alf]

Originally posted by red-beard
And what would that point be? What do you think is fair?

Good question; I think 20% is fair, all taxes included. If we did not have to fight wars to end all wars and fund incompetence and laziness, it should be more than enough.

I pay about 2x that today.

[red-beard]

Oh and I just recalculated it. If I add in the employer portion of the payroll taxes to boost both my income and the amount of taxes I pay, it rises to 42.3%.

Holy crap!

[red-beard]

Originally posted by alf
Good question; I think 20% is fair, all taxes included. If we did not have to fight wars to end all wars and fund incompetence and laziness, it should be more than enough.

I pay about 2x that today.

Our forefathers went to war with the Crown over a 4% tax.