What tax bracket am I in?

Me | TOH

[Methos8]

I definitly consider 100k wealthy when my mom raised my sister & I very well making 19k. ~methos8's fiancee

[Freya]

I agree, $100,000 salary is close to $57,000 after all federal, state and payroll taxes, or $1,100 per week. With a family, etc., that is not wealthy. It is better than a family on $50,000 gross salary, true, but it is not wealthy.

[hocndoc]

At that level, you wouldn't qualify for a lot of deductions, your kids wouldn't qualify for college assistance, and, if you have a 300K to 350K house (average for most with a 100k income), you'd pay almost a 10th of your income for school taxes in your school district.

Eventually, you lose all tax deductions, including the deduction for interest on the mortgage.

And don't forget that the cut-off for the amount taxed for Social Securty rises each year. You pay 6.5% (and your employer does) until 84K. (In 1992, the cut off was 66K, so, "wealthy" person now pays 12% on that last 12K that the "wealthy" in 1992 did not. I think it went up this year, too)

[the bottle let me down]

100k with 4 kids and a housewife mommmy and private school and college coming up is not wealth...at least not in my book

The problem is the confusion between annual income and wealth. Too many people forget that there is a difference. The two aren't the same thing. For example, a recent med school grad may have what seems to be a high income and have no wealth (indeed, they may have a negative net worth) due to student loans.

[3catsanadog]

I KNOW I'm in the K-Mart bracket.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

If I made 100k, I would consider myself wealthy.

Not if live on Long Island, NY and have a family.

[wardaddy]

Note to self: According to many fellow FReepers you are indeed wealthy...even though you are at the office 6 days per week and can barely scratch 2 nickles together after paying bills. Get over it.

[Bahbah]

Good heavens, I hope he doesn't think it was one of those smarty pants remarks. LOL

[Focault's Pendulum]

Good heavens, I hope he doesn't think it was one of those smarty pants remarks. LOL

Well...we are getting to the point, where the government wants to know when we use a bathroom.

[ken21]

how would i know what tax bracket you're in?

do you know what planet you're on?

[Cobra64]

I definitly consider 100k wealthy when my mom raised my sister & I very well making 19k.

Ever heard of inflation? My great grand-father was very wealthy in 1925 when he was earning $3,600/year. Go to the Bureau of Labor statistics and look at the graphs.

[Jeff Smith]

If life was fair, the Federal Government would adjust the brackets for inflation. Nobody earning under 70k a year should have to forfiet 28% of their income to a centralized bureacracy.

[the bottle let me down]

If life was fair, the Federal Government would adjust the brackets for inflation.

Reagan won that battle in the 1980s. The brackets are indexed for inflation. They are not, however, indexed for real wage growth.

[Jeff Smith]

27k in 2002 does not equal 27k in 1986. I'm guessing 27k in '86 equaled someething like 40k today. The 15% bracket should expand. BTW, that was the centerpiece of John McCain's tax cut.

[the bottle let me down]

I don't understand your point. Each year the change over from one marginal rate to the next is adjusted for unflation. If you're arguing that marginal rates are too high, I'll agree with you, but that has to do with Congress's choices in setting the tax rates, not inflation. Absent congressional changes in the law, a person who only receives an inflation based COLA won't be pushed into a higher bracket. This was not the case during the high inflation Carter years.

[Mr. Jeeves]

27K and a family is actually borderline poverty.

It's also borderline Republican. Therein lies the reason for the cutoff.

[Mr. Jeeves]

100K in the San Francisco Bay Area will not allow you to buy a house. In fact, you will have trouble renting more than a 2-bedroom apartment. All notions of what is "rich" or "poor" have to be adjusted for regional considerations.

[Jeff Smith]

When taxes were lowered in '86, there were two rates: 15% and 28%. I thought 27k had always been the cut off between the two.

[the bottle let me down]

Fine, but Congress has changed the brackets since then. Absent congressional meddling wiuth the law, the boundaries between the different brackets is adjusted for inflation each year.

As I said belfore, I agree that taxes are too high, but inflation is not the source of the problem.