I, for the life of me, can't understand how people can look at their W2s
 

and want a larger government that takes more of their money.

I am certainly not rich, 2 years out of college, but government took/withheld over $10k from me.

Let that sink in, over $800 a month payment to government before I get a paycheck. Never mind all the other taxes that we pay. It just boggles my mind that their are people in my some income bracket that want government to take more from them.

I know taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society but damn how much more can we get raped on?

I pay more on taxes per month than my two car payments... Ugh...

^ The truth fo sho!

The reason is simple and twofold:

1. Some people are socialists, plain and simple.

2. Some people sponge off of the system. If you make less than a certain amount of income (i.e. about $35k with one kid) you qualify for the EITC, and basically end up paying nothing or almost nothing so why not give more nothing? I know people that live a perfectly normal life and get back more in taxes than they pay in every year.

Some people just need to learn how to itemize and use the loopholes that the pro's use. I used to make $120K/yr. I never paid more than $17K in taxes. That's only 14.1%.

OP - are you referring to Federal taxes, or all taxes (medicare, SS, federal income tax, state income tax)?

I couldn't agree more with Cobraeater.

My wife and I paid a total of 6.04% of our wages in federal income taxes after we receive our $1,550 refund.

But still, $428/mo. is more than I care to give the government, and that's not including the $554 in FICA (giving Uncle Sam $983/mo. total - which comes to 13.85% of our total wages)


hm... I think I've given you plenty to determine my total income for the year. Good luck figuring it out.

that's why i'm lucky to have a mom who is a tax attorney. tongue.gif

That jefferson quote nails it though, but for real. Convince your parents to work for the IRS haha, it's bomb.

i made 17k last year (thats with addition of capital gains tax) and i ended up getting more money back on my tax return then i paid.....i got back $2200 and i paid $2050
thats the perks of claiming low income offset while being a uni student lol

If taxes were considerably smaller I bet that (for a lot of people) the gross salary companies would pay would also be smaller.. It's not like there is some global blue book which says that the work you do is worth exactly $30/hr or whatever.. you're basically paid as little as most similarly qualified people are willing to take.. which obviously depends on the net pay they would get.. A bit of an oversimplification but still I am sure that if tomorrow income tax would drop to 1% your gross pay WILL go down.

Anyway, taxes in USA are pretty damn small compared to other developed countries (many/most countries in Europe have higher income taxes and huge 20% sales taxes.. not to mention gas taxes). Everybody wants to have roads, utilities, security, public transport, etc. etc. but everyone complains about paying for it IMO

Majik: about 85k i gather haha