To answer RobKelk's question:
Officially, the 25% tax bracket starts at an annual taxable income, for a single person, of $34,501.
What that actually means is that a person making $34,501 will pay:
10% of income up to $8,500
15% of income between $8,500 and $34,500
25% of the $1 above $34,500
For a total of about $4,750, or a bit under 14% of the total.
Also, that's total taxable income, and there are a lot of things you can exempt from it (the "standard" deduction you can choose to take if you don't want to itemize and risk being asked to document every deduction is $5,800 for a single individual, so the gross pre-tax income at that point is really $40,300, making the actual percentage under 12%).
The next tax bracket up is 28%, for income over $83,600 (thus a gross of $89,400). At that point you're paying about 19% of gross.
A total tax burden equal to the 23% you specify starts to hit near the top of that bracket, at a gross of around $180,000. About 6% of the total US population falls at this point or above.
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Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Officially, the 25% tax bracket starts at an annual taxable income, for a single person, of $34,501.
What that actually means is that a person making $34,501 will pay:
10% of income up to $8,500
15% of income between $8,500 and $34,500
25% of the $1 above $34,500
For a total of about $4,750, or a bit under 14% of the total.
Also, that's total taxable income, and there are a lot of things you can exempt from it (the "standard" deduction you can choose to take if you don't want to itemize and risk being asked to document every deduction is $5,800 for a single individual, so the gross pre-tax income at that point is really $40,300, making the actual percentage under 12%).
The next tax bracket up is 28%, for income over $83,600 (thus a gross of $89,400). At that point you're paying about 19% of gross.
A total tax burden equal to the 23% you specify starts to hit near the top of that bracket, at a gross of around $180,000. About 6% of the total US population falls at this point or above.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.