3 ms·

How much taxes do they pay? 50%+ of their income?

by apta 6y ago

Gibbon1 6y ago
All the comparisons are apples and oranges usually. In the US if you're someone that works for a living you pay a lot of taxes once you add all the various ones up. In return the government provides you nothing at all. Where in places like the UK you pay a lot of taxes and you get public benefits in return. Like healthcare, decent schools, maternity leave, things like that. One year in SF as a single man I calculated my total tax rate was about 45%. Add Federal taxes, withholding, state income tax, and 8% sales tax. Then add $800/mo health insurance.
- apta 6y ago
  > One year in SF as a single man I calculated my total tax rate was about 45%. I'm assuming that's because of your salary bracket. For a similar level compensation in the UK would most likely be at least 60%-65% if not more.
  - Gibbon1 6y ago
    But 45% with no benefits at all. Add 8% for healthcare. Add another 15% for retirement contributions. 45% + 8% + 15% -> 68%. But that's just me. I talk to friends that have families that have lived in Europe and the US. And it's much easier in Europe. All the smoke and mirrors doesn't change that. Basically yes if you have a lot of passive income then the US is much better. If you have middle class amounts of earned income it's worse to terrible.
  - DanBC 6y ago
    How are you getting 65%? https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates
spacedcowboy 6y ago
I can only speak from personal experience, but if you add up all the taxes I pay right now in the US, I pay a larger percentage of my income in the US than I did in the UK, and I get none of the advantages from the UK (healthcare, pension, social care, mobility, etc. etc.) Now my salary is higher in the US than it was in the UK (despite the fact I owned the company in the UK, and I work as a software engineer over here) but that just makes things comparatively worse for the US. I used to get a larger percentage of my wages tax-free than I do here. The lower cost of living in the UK helps out here - just comparing the dollar:pound ratio using currency exchange metrics doesn't make sense when I sold my (owned) house in the UK and used that to get a 15% down-payment on a house out here in the valley. Fifteen years later and I've finally (this week actually :) paid off the mortgage on my home here. That's 15 years of mortgage payments that I wouldn't have had to make, and my house in the UK was (almost) twice the size of the one I now own here.

How much taxes do they pay? 50%+ of their income?

by apta 6y ago

How much taxes do they pay? 50%+ of their income?

All the comparisons are apples and oranges usually. In the US if you're someone that works for a living you pay a lot of taxes once you add all the various ones up. In return the government provides you nothing at all. Where in places like the UK you pay a lot of taxes and you get public benefits in return. Like healthcare, decent schools, maternity leave, things like that. One year in SF as a single man I calculated my total tax rate was about 45%. Add Federal taxes, withholding, state income tax, and 8% sales tax. Then add $800/mo health insurance.

apta 6y ago
> One year in SF as a single man I calculated my total tax rate was about 45%. I'm assuming that's because of your salary bracket. For a similar level compensation in the UK would most likely be at least 60%-65% if not more.
- Gibbon1 6y ago
  But 45% with no benefits at all. Add 8% for healthcare. Add another 15% for retirement contributions. 45% + 8% + 15% -> 68%. But that's just me. I talk to friends that have families that have lived in Europe and the US. And it's much easier in Europe. All the smoke and mirrors doesn't change that. Basically yes if you have a lot of passive income then the US is much better. If you have middle class amounts of earned income it's worse to terrible.
- DanBC 6y ago
  How are you getting 65%? https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates

spacedcowboy 6y ago

I can only speak from personal experience, but if you add up all the taxes I pay right now in the US, I pay a larger percentage of my income in the US than I did in the UK, and I get none of the advantages from the UK (healthcare, pension, social care, mobility, etc. etc.) Now my salary is higher in the US than it was in the UK (despite the fact I owned the company in the UK, and I work as a software engineer over here) but that just makes things comparatively worse for the US. I used to get a larger percentage of my wages tax-free than I do here. The lower cost of living in the UK helps out here - just comparing the dollar:pound ratio using currency exchange metrics doesn't make sense when I sold my (owned) house in the UK and used that to get a 15% down-payment on a house out here in the valley. Fifteen years later and I've finally (this week actually :) paid off the mortgage on my home here. That's 15 years of mortgage payments that I wouldn't have had to make, and my house in the UK was (almost) twice the size of the one I now own here.