Oh noes, teh overtaxed Americans!

[Donegeal]

Almost 5k in property taxes this year. Next year I suspect it will go up to 8 or nine (bought a new house).

All in all, I think I pay alot in taxes, but I like the system as I prepare for it well during the course of the year and always get a heafty refund...

[loinburger]

I'd rather owe the feds money than get a refund, so long as I don't have to pay a penalty.

[Donegeal]

Bah! The intrest lost is really negligible. I few dollars. On the other hand, when you get a heafty check in March from taxes, its like a bonus check from work (or I would imagine as I don't get bonuses). Payed for the nice 42" Plasma HDTV this year...

[Spec]

38%, I live in Canada.....

Spec.

[Az]

Canada

[Spaced Cowboy]

I worked in the service center in austin about 20 years ago, and my job was opening and sorting tax returns.

I remember one return where the check (taxes owed) was over one million dollars. The people only made about 5 million and I never heard of them before. Aka they were not famous.

[Spiffor]

For reference:

I am currently an employee, who pays part of his salary to the social system (healthcare + retirement + family allocations) These payments are separated from income tax, because that money is directly managed by the social system's fund, not the state.

I don't have enough money to pay income tax to the state (about 50% of the French don't earn enough to pay income tax - all employees pay for the social system however).

Looking at my last daily paysheet (7 hours of work):
- straight in my pocket: 60€
- deducted from my salary, to the social system (employee's share): 16€
- from the employer, to the social system (employer's share): 30€

Yup, social safety payments encompass about 40% of the total labour cost I (and every other employee) represent.

And of course, this only accounts for what is taken straight from my salary. If I earned more, I'd have to pay income taxes on that. Also, if I didn't live at my parents', I'd have to pay local taxes based on the surface of my flat. Also, I pay 19.6% on everything I consume, as sales tax.


I don't complain about it. Despite being a young graduate, I don't have any education debt to pay off (and my friends who do, have at most a few thousand Euros to pay off, nothing like commonly seen in the US). I don't have to make payments to a private health insurance that will try to **** me over. I don't need a car. I have rights to retirement.

The biggest single payment an average French employee has to do is rent, which is indeed going through the roof in Paris (it is not uncommon to see people paying half of their netto wage on rent), and this is because of an insufficient state intervention as far as housing is concerned.



In short, don't pretend you're overtaxed by the state. However, you might want to look at how overtaxed you are by your health insurance, your various life-investment-debts, etc. Those are taxing you, and are probably actually ****ing you over.

[loinburger]

Originally posted by Spiffor
In short, don't pretend you're overtaxed by the state. However, you might want to look at how overtaxed you are by your health insurance, your various life-investment-debts, etc. Those are taxing you, and are probably actually ****ing you over.

Health insurance and IRA contributions (not counting Roth IRA contributions, which don't show up on my leave and earnings statement) amount to a little over 25% of what I pay in taxes.

[Spiffor]

What are IRA contributions?

[loinburger]

Retirement savings. Traditional IRA contributions are tax-deferred, but you pay a penalty if you withdraw them before retirement. Roth IRA contributions are taxed, but the interest accrued is tax-deferred, so you can withdraw the original contribution at any time without being penalized.

[Spiffor]

I'm surprised you have to pay so little for these two, especially for health insurance. Do you have a particular bargain because you're young and healthy, or are the users not the ones who pay the 15% of GNP spent into health?

[loinburger]

My employer pays the bulk of my insurance costs. They also (approximately) match my IRA contributions (I contribute 5%, they match 4%).

[Spiffor]

Thanks for the info

[loinburger]

My medical costs would also be higher if I were ill more often, because I've got a small deductible (around $200, IIRC), I pay co-payments for office visits (typically $20), and I also pay co-payments for medication ($35 for a 3-month prescription). For something major like a surgery I'd likely have to pay about 10% of the costs out of pocket. I haven't been sick in years, though.

[DinoDoc]

Any idea when tax freedom day will be this year?