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Our tax burdens are not the lowest by any means. My total tax rate partially due to living in California (although it is mostly Federal) is ~40%. There are plen

Our tax burdens are not the lowest by any means. My total tax rate partially due to living in California (although it is mostly Federal) is ~40%. There are plenty of countries in Europe that would be happy to tax me less. My buddy in Singapore pays about 8% all told and he's in the same income range. The temptation to become an expat gets stronger as I earn more money. My sin is not being a fat cat living off capital gains. I have to actually earn my income, so I get fucked.

Maascamp 15y ago
Singapore's not quite the oasis you make it out to be. Have a look at how much it will cost you for a car once you get over there.
- alnayyir 15y ago
  I've been there, thanks for assuming, and I also know how much a car costs. You don't need a car there, it's a petty way to show off. Taxis are absurdly cheap in Singapore. gothere.sg is a great site for getting places too.
- mahyarm 15y ago
  You really don't need a car in singapore. It's one city, and you can fly everywhere in SE asia for $50-$200 round trip with AirAsia.
- Tsagadai 15y ago
  You really don't need a car to live in Singapore. Most of the time, driving will take you longer than getting on the metro. Remember that Singapore is an extremely small country and you can easily commute to anywhere on the island with a pushbike (even in the rain, most offices have showers). Renting or buying property is the expensive part of living in Singapore. However, it is quite inexpensive to get a live-in maid/nanny.
  - vacri 15y ago
    That being said, it's also a little unfair to use it as a standard reference point, given that it's a small city-state which also happens to be the best-placed trading port in the world. Singapore is an outlier - when you can take the cream off an inordinate amount of trade pouring past, you don't need as much income tax.
_delirium 15y ago
How do you manage to get an effective 40% tax rate in California? I could see that as a marginal rate on the last few dollars, but you'd have to make in the millions to get there for your overall tax rate. For example, if you make $100k and take only the standard deduction, you'll pay $19k in federal taxes (19%) and $6k in California taxes (6%), for 25% total. If you include payroll taxes, that's another ~7.5%, so 32.5%. Of course, many people take much larger deductions than the standard deduction, so pay considerably less.
- alnayyir 15y ago
  >And San Francisco applies its city payroll tax to income from self-employment. [1] >[1] http://taxes.about.com/od/income/a/Self-Employment-Income.htm http://taxes.about.com/od/income/a/Self-Employment-Income.ht...
- jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
  Unless he's a multi-millionaire who has one of the worst tax preparers in history, he doesn't have a 40% tax rate. The reason why he thinks his tax rate is 40% is because he's making the mistake that common among financial illiterates, which is confusing the maximum tax rate with the marginal (i.e., actual) tax rate. The highest Federal tax rate is currently 35%. That bracket applies to people who earn $379,150 or more. But if you earn $379,151, that means that only one of the many dollars you earned is actually taxed at the 35% rate. Similarly, the highest California tax bracket is currently 11%, for people who earn a million bucks a year or more. But again, only the income that's above $1 million is taxed at that rate. Your first $47,000 in income is going to be taxed at the rate of 0 percent to 10 percent. And that doesn't even factor in deductions. So even if your income is a million bucks a year, it doesn't mean that your combined state and federal tax rate is 40%.
  - michaeldhopkins 15y ago
    This is true, yet often when it is brought up as you have done it is a straw man. The OP has in his mind that taxes collected are excessive. If you show him that rates are progressive, he won't decide that enough money is being collected after all. He is only using the tax rate as a rhetorical point -- he points elsewhere for proof that too much is collected. Edit: should clarify I prepare taxes among other things. I'm NOT saying the brackets aren't progressive, just that this guy isn't saying, "gee, if only we progressed up to 35% things would be fine."
yzhengyu 15y ago
As a Singaporean, all I can say is that once you become more aware of how the incumbent government generates most of its revenue, you will be rendered speechless. Americans often exaggerate and say that their nation is turning into a corporate state - come to Singapore, and you will realize that the state is administered exactly like a corporation.
inthewoods 15y ago
I actually think the problem with perceptions of taxes in the US is not that we are taxed too much, but rather that many people feel they are taxed too much relative to the value they get from paying the taxes. If everyone had free, universal healthcare, I'd guess people would feel better about paying their taxes. The fact that a large portion goes to funding a largely unseen war machine doesn't help. The other issue, of course, is that many people don't seem to realize that they benefit from the taxes they pay - a classic example being the tax credit for owning a home.

Maascamp 15y ago

Singapore's not quite the oasis you make it out to be. Have a look at how much it will cost you for a car once you get over there.

alnayyir 15y ago
I've been there, thanks for assuming, and I also know how much a car costs. You don't need a car there, it's a petty way to show off. Taxis are absurdly cheap in Singapore. gothere.sg is a great site for getting places too.
mahyarm 15y ago
You really don't need a car in singapore. It's one city, and you can fly everywhere in SE asia for $50-$200 round trip with AirAsia.
Tsagadai 15y ago
You really don't need a car to live in Singapore. Most of the time, driving will take you longer than getting on the metro. Remember that Singapore is an extremely small country and you can easily commute to anywhere on the island with a pushbike (even in the rain, most offices have showers). Renting or buying property is the expensive part of living in Singapore. However, it is quite inexpensive to get a live-in maid/nanny.
- vacri 15y ago
  That being said, it's also a little unfair to use it as a standard reference point, given that it's a small city-state which also happens to be the best-placed trading port in the world. Singapore is an outlier - when you can take the cream off an inordinate amount of trade pouring past, you don't need as much income tax.

_delirium 15y ago

How do you manage to get an effective 40% tax rate in California? I could see that as a marginal rate on the last few dollars, but you'd have to make in the millions to get there for your overall tax rate. For example, if you make $100k and take only the standard deduction, you'll pay $19k in federal taxes (19%) and $6k in California taxes (6%), for 25% total. If you include payroll taxes, that's another ~7.5%, so 32.5%. Of course, many people take much larger deductions than the standard deduction, so pay considerably less.

alnayyir 15y ago
>And San Francisco applies its city payroll tax to income from self-employment. [1] >[1] http://taxes.about.com/od/income/a/Self-Employment-Income.htm http://taxes.about.com/od/income/a/Self-Employment-Income.ht...
jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
Unless he's a multi-millionaire who has one of the worst tax preparers in history, he doesn't have a 40% tax rate. The reason why he thinks his tax rate is 40% is because he's making the mistake that common among financial illiterates, which is confusing the maximum tax rate with the marginal (i.e., actual) tax rate. The highest Federal tax rate is currently 35%. That bracket applies to people who earn $379,150 or more. But if you earn $379,151, that means that only one of the many dollars you earned is actually taxed at the 35% rate. Similarly, the highest California tax bracket is currently 11%, for people who earn a million bucks a year or more. But again, only the income that's above $1 million is taxed at that rate. Your first $47,000 in income is going to be taxed at the rate of 0 percent to 10 percent. And that doesn't even factor in deductions. So even if your income is a million bucks a year, it doesn't mean that your combined state and federal tax rate is 40%.
- michaeldhopkins 15y ago
  This is true, yet often when it is brought up as you have done it is a straw man. The OP has in his mind that taxes collected are excessive. If you show him that rates are progressive, he won't decide that enough money is being collected after all. He is only using the tax rate as a rhetorical point -- he points elsewhere for proof that too much is collected. Edit: should clarify I prepare taxes among other things. I'm NOT saying the brackets aren't progressive, just that this guy isn't saying, "gee, if only we progressed up to 35% things would be fine."

yzhengyu 15y ago

As a Singaporean, all I can say is that once you become more aware of how the incumbent government generates most of its revenue, you will be rendered speechless. Americans often exaggerate and say that their nation is turning into a corporate state - come to Singapore, and you will realize that the state is administered exactly like a corporation.

inthewoods 15y ago

I actually think the problem with perceptions of taxes in the US is not that we are taxed too much, but rather that many people feel they are taxed too much relative to the value they get from paying the taxes. If everyone had free, universal healthcare, I'd guess people would feel better about paying their taxes. The fact that a large portion goes to funding a largely unseen war machine doesn't help. The other issue, of course, is that many people don't seem to realize that they benefit from the taxes they pay - a classic example being the tax credit for owning a home.