Check your US tax rate for 2012—and every year since 1913

Sad to think that people feel taking a fifth of a persons productive output is low. Throw in city and state taxes and burdens can be pretty abysmal. Throw in on top of that all the embedded taxes in nearly every item you buy today and I wonder where our true tax load is.

The US does not have a taxing problem, it has a spending problem. Even if the President got his wishes his tax increase on the "rich" would not net more that the US deficit spends in ONE month. If you tax 400K+ it only returns a possible 70 billion more PER YEAR!.

Worse, instead of using these taxes to reduce the deficit they already have new spending lined up.

So, sorry I feel that even twenty percent is pretty bad. It means for over a fifth of the year I am not working for myself. Since my effective is near thirty percent I spend an incredible amount of time working for someone else.

Yes. However, each state has its own income taxes and sales taxes. The marginal rate at 100k (the tax rate for each additional dollar earned) is higher (28% according to this article). In my city, in California: 7.75% sales tax, 10.3% state income tax... Oh, social security, Medicare... These add more. My point being that at 100k a California resident (for example) pays much more than 21.5% effective rate, and much more than 28% on each additional dollar earned.

citricsquid,

Don't forget state income tax, sales tax and various other embedded tax. Realistically, taxes are around 40% - 50%.

Also keep in mind that we get very little benefits for those tax dollars compared to Europe for example. Our healthcare costs and higher education are not covered by that tax the same way most European countries are. The only thing we do get for that money is perpetual war and bank/industry bailouts. Kind of a raw deal.

Preferably, I'd love to see a mixed system. A VAT tax, a flat income tax and capital gains tax. Something like 13/13/13 across the board (or maybe less if the US could get unnecessary spending down - not likely). This has worked brilliantly for several eastern European countries ever since they implemented them.

Low? As a self employed entrepreneur, all in, I pay about 32.5% on the first $65,000.

Property taxes are 3% of my income.

Throw in sales taxes paid throughout the year.

I pay 40% in taxes out of $65,000 - not counting indirect effects of taxes raising the cost of everything I buy.

Low? Anything above $0 is high because it is forced. No one has the moral right to forcibly take from the life of one person to give to another, no matter how great the need of that other person may happen to be. Every person has the moral right to live for his own sake, as far as he can go through voluntary trade with others.

A government based on individual rights is small enough (i.e., just police, military, courts) that it can be funded through voluntary donations.

Yup. Notice the similar spike around World War I. Also notice that the spike went back down fairly soon after World War I, but after World War II they pretty much stayed at the increased level; rather than decreasing spending and taxes back to pre-war levels, the government just found other ways to spend it and continue growing.