And don't misunderstand me, I'm not trying to suggest that is a ton of money. I'm simply wondering why your net is so much lower than what I would have expected. I'm impressed that you are working your way through school, as I did the same several years ago. But with scholarships, loans, subsidized state tuition and my jobs, while it was tough, I actually had no problem feeding myself, and certainly money left over for some good times at the bars, occasionally.
And, assuming you have no deductions, and are supporting yourself 50% or more, your fed tax would be something like 4.8%.. 4.8 plus social security and medicare would be 13.2%--but quite a gap from 28%.
you can run through it also, just putting 0's in for withholdings to date in 1995, and it ends up giving you your estimated taxes.
you are correct that the marginal tax rate is 15%. But that is the number you use to calculate how much more tax you would pay on earning an additinion, say, $1000 over your base earnings--a very useful number, but not for estimating your total tax bill--only your marginal taxes.
there are some deductions that Mimi (and most of us) would get before the tax calculations would apply, according to the way she describes herself--kind of a personal deduction and what's called a standard deduction. It more or less means that roughly the first $10,000 is taxed at 0%. (these calculations are buried in that withholding calculator I directed you to above, but if you dig a little on the IRS site, doubt you'll want to as it's unbelievable boring, you'll see the detail of this). then, I'm going a little from memory, the next $7500ish is taxed at 10%. So in her case the only money taxed at the higher marginal 15% rate is the amount above the $17,500ish. So her tax bill comes out to be pretty small. And of course i don't know anything else about her life, but she may have some other deductions that would lower this--she sounds like someone that would donate to good charitable causes for example, or maybe pay interest on some student loans, maybe some work expenses.
oh and the way I read mimi, she supports herself more than 50%, and she would therefore get some benefit from being a household filer rather than a single filer. Her parents I believe, would have to be giving her another $20,000+ before they could claim her as a deduction.
hope that helps :)
Since mimi's not weighing in here, we'll just have to give her the benefit of the doubt that the rest is in state taxes of some sort. I'm not very good at percentages which is why I just looked for the hard numbers per year. How much is social security and medicare, do you know? Don't go to any more work to answer, though. It's starting to feel like H & R block in here! :-)
Seriously, though, I think this whole discussion has illustrated one of the political problems that the Republicans have been capitalizing on. A lot of the lower income folks here aren't making it financially. If you can afford an IRA and medical savings and a mortgage, you can end up paying much lower taxes.
But if you're someone living and working in an expensive inner-city, someone who's struggling to pay their bills, that $200 a month or so in taxes really hurts. All of your living expenses are sky high, you pay sales tax and taxes on your car, gas, and some utilities, you add those taxes up and wonder why the hell you're paying so much when Enron didn't pay any federal taxes some years.
This is hard evidence to these folks that the system stinks. It's why they vote "against their interests" for the "low-tax" Republicans. We keep wondering about this working class "insanity" without addressing the underlying issues the Republicans are speaking to with their rhetoric. Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
Sorry for all the confusion.
Thanks for taking the time and I'm glad to see you again. Between wchurchill's Wild Ass Guesses, my sweeping generalizations, and your experiences, we make a pretty good team, I think! We even all dragged some facts in -- I'm quite pleased with us. Now if Colman can just sort it all out... ;-) Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
And you got my comment wrong. I am in my late fifties and don't work myself through US schools for a degree anymore (well, I have something in mind, but...) My son does though. I myself was never working in the US in my original career field which would on the long run have put me in another income level. But I guess that's completely off-topic here.
And not to forget as a green card holder you don't have access to grants and loans the same way as US citizens do. If you are not a green card holder you are never eligible for resident tuition costs.
I am not familiar with all the "help" US citizens can get for their education, I have to admit. It's definitely something one has to take into account. Yet, I am involved in hiring some American students occasionally and so far I haven't found any, who was not completely overburdened with debt.
Also not to mention that fifteen to twenty years ago the tuition were not yet as high as they are today. Nevertheless they are definitely a factor in the life of any US student and they are absent for almost all European students.
