Are you sure you pay 40%? Googling around a bit to find the US income tax rates (assuming you are in the US) I found this: https://www.bankrate.com/finance/tax

Are you sure you pay 40%? Googling around a bit to find the US income tax rates (assuming you are in the US) I found this: https://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/tax-brackets.aspx https://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/tax-brackets.aspx This is really just the first thing I looked at, but it seems to provide the desired information. The highest bracket, for income above roughly 550k, is 37%. So considering only federal income tax it is impossible to pay 40% of your income in taxes, but also the first 550k or so of your income would be taxed at lower rates.