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Let's look at it this this way - say you live in Texas and make $7.25 / hr. That's $7.25 * 8 hours * 260 days = $15080 / year. According to this tax calc (https

Let's look at it this this way - say you live in Texas and make $7.25 / hr. That's $7.25 * 8 hours * 260 days = $15080 / year. According to this tax calc (https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes), you still have to pay $1407 in total federal income taxes, or 9.33%. It may not sound a lot, but remember - when you're making that little money, every dollar counts. You could be living on the edge of poverty, where you just make enough money to cover your basic needs, but never make enough to save up anything. Compare that to someone making, let's say $60k in Texas. You're not anywhere near a six-figure salary, but you'd still make 4 times more than minimum wage. Same calculator shows that at $60k in Texas, you'll have to pay $10778 in taxes, or %17.96. Higher percentage, but you'll probably have a lot more to save than the minimum wage person in the previous example. The "rich" engineers making $250k will have to pay 28.23% in taxes, even more than you. Now the wealthy, they will probably never pay more than capital gains taxes at most - which is a capped figure, most places. And as others have mentioned, there's a whole industry dedicated to bringing down the taxes for wealthy people. So while the middle and upper-middle class is bankrolling the nation in terms of tax %, I think it's important to remember that these things have to be seen in context. I have a 3-4 times higher tax rate than "poor people", but I make more than enough money to everything I need, post-taxes.

ajsnigrutin 4y ago
I live in slovenia. A basic factory worker (a bit above minumum wage), earns 1200eur monthly gross, which (due to weird laws) costs the employer 1393eur (gross-gross), and the worker gets 831eur net out of that, meaning that the government takes around 40%. (the tax rate also includes pension and health insurance) If you earn 5x times average pay (let's say you're becoming "rich"), that would make it 10k gross, costing your employer 11610eur, and you earning 5167eur net, meaning that the government takes around 55%. Ok, similar enough,... but(!), with the same cost to your employer (11610eur), you can earn a lot more if you avoid taxes. Lets say you start an independing contractor business in slovenia (a paper thing, you get the status) - this would make you pay a minimum of ~450eur monthly for health insurance and pension insurance (yes, this would also make you get minimal pension later, but wait for the rest of the math). Then you open a company in bosnia, where you pay ~100eur per month for bookkeeping, a mailbox, and other related costs, and then pay only 10% when you take out the profits. So your fixed monthly cost is around 600eur + 10% of the 11k of your gross gross left over, totalling to 1700eur, and earning 9900eur net, meaning that you effectively pay 15% in taxes. But that's not the worst part... if the company is registed in your girlfriends/brothers/mothers/... name, you (as a couple) still earn the same, but you're now (on paper) poor, so if you have a kid, with some paper turning, the kid will get free kindergarden and food (compared to almost 500eur monthly for two a bit above average paychecks). You might also get a government sponsored apartment to avoid high rents. So yeah... at some point, dealing with bureaucrats in two countries goes from "not worth it" to "definitely worth it".

ajsnigrutin 4y ago

I live in slovenia. A basic factory worker (a bit above minumum wage), earns 1200eur monthly gross, which (due to weird laws) costs the employer 1393eur (gross-gross), and the worker gets 831eur net out of that, meaning that the government takes around 40%. (the tax rate also includes pension and health insurance) If you earn 5x times average pay (let's say you're becoming "rich"), that would make it 10k gross, costing your employer 11610eur, and you earning 5167eur net, meaning that the government takes around 55%. Ok, similar enough,... but(!), with the same cost to your employer (11610eur), you can earn a lot more if you avoid taxes. Lets say you start an independing contractor business in slovenia (a paper thing, you get the status) - this would make you pay a minimum of ~450eur monthly for health insurance and pension insurance (yes, this would also make you get minimal pension later, but wait for the rest of the math). Then you open a company in bosnia, where you pay ~100eur per month for bookkeeping, a mailbox, and other related costs, and then pay only 10% when you take out the profits. So your fixed monthly cost is around 600eur + 10% of the 11k of your gross gross left over, totalling to 1700eur, and earning 9900eur net, meaning that you effectively pay 15% in taxes. But that's not the worst part... if the company is registed in your girlfriends/brothers/mothers/... name, you (as a couple) still earn the same, but you're now (on paper) poor, so if you have a kid, with some paper turning, the kid will get free kindergarden and food (compared to almost 500eur monthly for two a bit above average paychecks). You might also get a government sponsored apartment to avoid high rents. So yeah... at some point, dealing with bureaucrats in two countries goes from "not worth it" to "definitely worth it".