3 ms·

There isn't a tax bracket in the US where most of any income goes to taxes. There should be though!

subsubzero 4y ago
So in California we were losing about half of our money to taxes, its always fun to make estimated tax payments when you received your quarterly RSUs(~40% of the RSU money goes to taxes when you get them) and then with the rest putting half of that towards a quarterly tax payment, we left the state to avoid the stranglehold of taxes and will probably go to 1 income as two high earners just isn't worth it, but if you like higher taxes move to Europe, you may love it there.
- hadlock 4y ago
  I'm not sure about tech salaries, but based on several surveys, it would appear that effective tax rate for most workers is about the same between european countries and united states. They just spend less on defense, and more on social programs (although some countries have very recently increased defense spending). California taxes are extremely high though, I agree.
  - EricE 4y ago
    >They just spend less on defense Because the US takes up the slack. Something we need to seriously STOP doing :p
rot13xor 4y ago
In California the top marginal tax rate can be over 50%. 37% federal tax, 12% state tax, 3.8% net investment tax.
- hgsgm 4y ago
  That's on income over ~$500K AGI (which after deducting 401(k) )
- kgermino 4y ago
  Not sure what the net investment tax is, but just the normal Medicare tax (2.35%) is enough to get over 50% with federal and state income taxed there
zeroonetwothree 4y ago
In CA it’s 13.3% for incomes over 1 million
kgermino 4y ago
Not quite right: California + Federal tops out over 50%. Not by a lot and it obviously won't hit most people but it's an interesting benchmark.
- hackerfromthefu 4y ago
  Yeah and thats online income taxes! Then with less than half left theres countless taxes built into the things you spend on (e.g. sales taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes, import tariffs, etc etc etc etc and oh yeah more etc)

So in California we were losing about half of our money to taxes, its always fun to make estimated tax payments when you received your quarterly RSUs(~40% of the RSU money goes to taxes when you get them) and then with the rest putting half of that towards a quarterly tax payment, we left the state to avoid the stranglehold of taxes and will probably go to 1 income as two high earners just isn't worth it, but if you like higher taxes move to Europe, you may love it there.

hadlock 4y ago
I'm not sure about tech salaries, but based on several surveys, it would appear that effective tax rate for most workers is about the same between european countries and united states. They just spend less on defense, and more on social programs (although some countries have very recently increased defense spending). California taxes are extremely high though, I agree.
- EricE 4y ago
  >They just spend less on defense Because the US takes up the slack. Something we need to seriously STOP doing :p

rot13xor 4y ago

In California the top marginal tax rate can be over 50%. 37% federal tax, 12% state tax, 3.8% net investment tax.

hgsgm 4y ago
That's on income over ~$500K AGI (which after deducting 401(k) )
kgermino 4y ago
Not sure what the net investment tax is, but just the normal Medicare tax (2.35%) is enough to get over 50% with federal and state income taxed there

zeroonetwothree 4y ago

In CA it’s 13.3% for incomes over 1 million

kgermino 4y ago

Not quite right: California + Federal tops out over 50%. Not by a lot and it obviously won't hit most people but it's an interesting benchmark.

hackerfromthefu 4y ago
Yeah and thats online income taxes! Then with less than half left theres countless taxes built into the things you spend on (e.g. sales taxes, property taxes, fuel taxes, import tariffs, etc etc etc etc and oh yeah more etc)