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0 pointsarohner14y ago0 comments

That's "only" for social security and medicare. You still pay federal income tax on top of that.

0 comments

And on top of that the state income taxes in most states, and sales taxes that usually approach 8 or 9%, and property taxes on real estate (and autos where I live). Also if you manage to save anything after all that, you can look forward to paying dividend or capital gains taxes (a form of double taxation).

It is a myth that America is a low tax nation.

barrkel14y ago

Most other countries have twice that sales tax, as well as having all those other taxes. The best rough estimate of taxation burden might be proportion of government spending of GDP, which IIRC is about 35% for US, and is lower than eg most European countries.

techiferous14y ago

Government spending as a percentage of GDP per country

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_spending#Government_...

artsrc14y ago

You need to take into account what you get in addition to what you pay.

In American those taxes provide a strong military. Most of the rest of the world are very poorly equipped by comparison. Other countries get health care and education.

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tadfisher14y ago

Keep in mind that the US is a deficit spender, so effective tax should be even lower than that figure.

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