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Do you consider sales tax, etc as tax?

I do not consider it because the discussion was about how much of your salary you get to keep, which implies income taxes.

Sales tax, gas tax, land tax, etc all come later. They can be significant, but aren't part of the discussion of take home salary.

They absolutely are. You don’t get to artificially limit scope just because it suits you. If you get robbed both at the ATM and on the way home you’re still coming back with less cash!

I didn't say I don't consider them to be taxes. I said I don't consider them in this discussion because they're not part of how much of your salary you take home.

To look at it from another point of view... If _all_ the money you made came from long term capital gains, the taxes you pay on it would be based on totally different tax rules. Capital gains taxes are certainly impacting how much you "spend" on taxes, but they don't impact how much of your "salary" goes to taxes.... because you don't have a salary.

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