Now I'm even further confused.
I really have no clue what you're talking about.
It's only because you're intentionally being misled with phony rates, which part of the purchase is actually taxed and you haven't heard the half of it...
Wait till you learn that the (phony) 23% rate is only the teaser for the first year. After the first year the bureaucrats at Social Security would "determine the rates" based on your reported earnings(yes reported earnings) for SS purposes....
It doesn't stop there