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Comment by golergka | Hacker News Reader

Depends on the country. In US, it seems that everybody does their taxes and all salaries and income are discussed as "before tax"; in Russia, for example, all taxes and payments for employees are done on employer's side and all salaries and income are usually discussed as "after tax" - people don't even usually know how much are they earning "before tax".

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Same here in the UK. You can look at how much tax you've paid on your payslip, but you never feel like that money was yours in the first place since it never hits your bank.

I had to complete a tax return for the first time last year, although it's completely illogical (and I'd budgeted the number so knew what it would be well in advance), it felt more painful paying the ~£_,000 of extra tax I owed than paying the ~£_0,000 of tax that had been automagically deducted from my pay packet.

> You can look at how much tax you've paid on your payslip, but you never feel like that money was yours in the first place since it never hits your bank.

It is the same in the US - however, if you get a job offer in the US for a given salary - that is a pre-tax number. I believe the grandparent was making the point that in Russia, salary and wages are discussed purely in after-tax terms.

>>...but you never feel like that money was yours in the first place since it never hits your bank.

A politician (republican-ish, Scandinavia) once told me, that the whole tax-system would fall apart if people were paid their salaries in full and had to pay their taxes in cash.

It is of course absurd and impractical in our day and age, but I think most people are blind to the amount of tax they pay.

Well, salaries paid in full would certainly give more power to the taxpayer who would in turn demand more accountabilty from the politican. Perhaps the politician in your story is a bit biased and is spreading FUD.

I hate how governments do that. It's as if they're interested in not letting people know how much things cost to run, and making them feel that they're getting a lot for their (seemingly) low taxes.

How can you handle more complex scenarios without knowing your before tax salaries?

For example, working two jobs.

don't work two jobs, be happier

Simple and predictable tax code that almost never depends on any particular person: flat 13% tax. (It's much worse and complicated for companies though).

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