Hate getting bumped up into the 125% tax bracket
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2024
1 points (100.0% liked)
shitposting
1629 readers
8 users here now
Rules •1. No Doxxing •2. No TikTok reposts •3. No Harassing •4. Post Gore at your own discretion, Depends if its funny or just gore to be an edgelord.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
This is a dumb take as that's not how taxes work. Also, anyone that says taxes are theft or useless don't know anything about history. Taxes were created even before written language. There has never been a nation/civilization without some form taxation. Not saying we can't get there, but that'll take dismantling our current capitalist and monetary based economy. Think star trek.
is joke, see name
I legit have had my boss tell me they were pissed to get a raise because taxes though. That was before I knew how it actually worked.
It's comparatively unlikely, but there are circumstances where this type of thing can be true. Because income tax is not the only factor that matters. For example, you might get put on too high an income to qualify for some sort of tax rebate or welfare programme. Or you might start qualifying for an additional tax that isn't applied marginally.
As one specific example, in Australia we have the Medicare Levy Surcharge, which you pay if your income is above a certain threshold and you're above a certain age and don't have private health insurance. If those conditions are met, it applies to all your income. It's a small enough surcharge (ranging from 0% to 1.5%, with 1% and 1.25% steps in non-marginal brackets in between) that there are almost no practical circumstances that you'd actually end up worse off taking a raise, but it is at least theoretically possible.
Similarly in the UK going over £80k in income prevents you from claiming child benefit, and going over £100k makes you ineligible for a host of other benefits. A salary bump from 99k to 100k would be very expensive for you if had young children.
Stupidly though, a married couple each earning £99k would be able to use all benefits, but a couple where one earns £101k and the other £20k would lose out.
but a couple where one earns £101k and the other £20k would lose out
Oh damn, that sucks. In Australia most (at least) of these types of things have a separate threshold for couples where it's based on the total income of the couple, not the higher partner's income, preventing that kind of situation.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Yup. It’s called the “welfare (or benefits) cliff”. It tends to happen at the lower end and the. Again at the upper middle end. There are quite a few tax breaks in the US you can’t take once you pass an AGI of $160-175K. Depending on if you were taking them, a raise could technically result in less net income.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Yeah fucking Medicare levy.
It means I have private health and I hate the idea we are privatising our health system.
Just a side note, here I'm talking about the Medicare Levy Surcharge, which is actually an entirely separate thing from the Medicare Levy. That is a 2% levy that you can't get rid of by having private insurance. (But can get reduced by having very low income, or can be exempt from if you're not eligible for Medicare in the first place, e.g. if you're not a citizen.)
Just in case anyone is curious about how it works...
Your entire income isn't taxed at the same rate. Each chunk of your income is taxed differently. The first 11k is taxed at 10%, the next 35k is taxed at 12%, the next 50k is taxed at 22%, and it continues on at different intervals after that. This person believed that going from 44k to 45k would then change their tax bracket and their gross income would be taxed at 22%, thus reducing their net income. This is false. Only the amount over the threshold gets taxed at the higher rate. Always take a raise if it benefits you.
If they receive subsidized benefits like food stamps or quantity for free health benefits, they could lose those though. There's a reason they call it the benefit cliff. My family stayed under that line intentionally for years and when decided to take raises to get out of that cycle, things were worse for a long time.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I'm not saying you're wrong - I completely agree with you. But I have been in the position where, if I made 10 dollars less I would have paid more than 100 dollars less in tax. That just comes from the infuriating discrete tax "tables," instead of actually calculating the tax using a continuous formula.
load more comments
(2 replies)
This person was clearly joking. Look at their username.
Youd be surprised at how many think a raise gives them less
Still too many who don't know this, it's best to explain to everyone. I've explained it to my mother several times, and she gets it, but then conveniently forgets about that when discussing politics.
I am surprised by the amount of professionally employed homeowning parental adults I have encountered that do not know this.
It's what happens when public education is poorly funded and doesn't explain the basics with what little they do have.
I've heard of people who use this as an excuse to turn down overtime
I've tried to explain this to coworkers who claim to want overtime, but are afraid to due to this. They either don't understand, don't believe me, or don't really want to work OT.
As long as they filled out their w-4s right they wouldn't even have to worry. I've talked to too many people who put zero down and wonder why they owe every year.
load more comments
(4 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Where the hell are taxes this low? I pay 42% income tax, excl social insurances and charges.
Where are you paying 42%?
Papua New Guinea, Luxembourg and Germany are 42%, and a few other European countries have a bracket that hover around the 41-44%.
Let's make it even more simple with some fake numbers to make it super easy.
$0-$10,000 - taxed at 10%
$10,000-$20,000 - taxed at 20%
$20,000-$30,000 - taxed at 30%
If you make 9 and get a raise to 11, seems like you would now pay 20% on all that! But no.
The first 10 is still taxed at 10%, only the extra $1,000 gets taxed at 20%.
If you go to 31, again, the first 10 is taxed at 10, the next 10 is taxed at 20, and only the extra $1,000 gets taxed at 30%.
$10,000-$20,000 - taxed at 20%
Goll durnit, I know 10,000-20,000=-10,000! How I supposed to pay 20% tax on -$10,000?? Do they pay ME money?? Clearly everythin you said is BULLshit!
(This is a joke just to be clear :P)
load more comments
(6 replies)