My apologies for posting this off-topic, but I've spent most of this week hunting this stuff on every web page, library, office and other resource I could get at. Nowhere have I been able to find a straight answer to this question:

What are the US sales and income tax rates?

Specifically, I'm trying to find how much tax someone in the upper-middle-class (you know, top 30-40% but not top 5-10%) would pay as a % of income. I can work out a consumption estimate, but I *really* need those rates in order to have something to work from.

Sorry for posting off-topic. If tax rates are as available for you Americans as our rates are in Australia, it shouldn't be too much trouble for someone to inform me, or at least refer me to where I could find the numbers?

Thanks, --Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), November 19, 1998

Answers

Leo

Welcome to a republic!! The MAX FEDERAL INCOME tax rate is aprox 35%.

The State Income tax rate varies with 50+ different values.

(NB 50 **+**)

The state sales tax rate varies with 50 (or more) different values.

And in each state, there may or may not be additional County Sales taxes, and city sales taxes.

Plus, in some cities and or counties, there may be ADDITIONAL sales taxes on "sin" items of tobacco and alcohol. this is why you seem to be getting a different answer every place you look, because the answer IS different everywhere you look.

Chuck

PS there are also various deductions for various things, on the fed, state and local levels which decrease the effective tax rate. there are also additional taxes on different sources of income. (ex here in Cuyahoga County there is a tax on "intangibles" of 1 or 1.5%. "Intangibles" means stock portfolios, trusts, Certificates of Deposit (CD's), etc.)

tax calculations for cash registers are a whole INDUSTRY in the States!!!!

cr

-- Chuck a Night Driver (rienzoo@en.com), November 20, 1998.

Great, Chuck, I think you just added another 2 weeks to my work. Thanks anyway ;)

By the way, if anyone wants to see who I'm working for, go to

http://www.new-utopia.com

or

http://www.new-utopia.org

.

By the way, just for the record: top tax bracket in Australia pays 48 cents in the dollar plus a 1.5% medicare levy, so it's effectively 49.5%. Don't forget the cigarette and alcohol taxes! And the GST of 10% on everything! And the import duties! And the god-knows-what-else!

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), November 20, 1998.

Don't you just love the way, once the legal maximum for state and county "sales" tax has been reached, that legislators simply change the name and add on what they call a "sin" tax, to evade that legal limit?

-- Floyd Baker (fbaker@wzrd.com), November 20, 1998.

>>Don't you just love the way, once the legal maximum for state and county "sales" tax has been reached, that legislators simply change the name and add on what they call a "sin" tax, to evade that legal limit?<<

I like to say that all governments are expert at inventing new pockets from which to extract our money.

-- Elbow Grease (Elbow_Grease@AutoShop.com), November 20, 1998.

I am always grateful that we don't get all of the government that we are paying for. Can't you just imagine that? That, dear hearts, would indeed be TEOTWAWKI.

S.O.B.

-- sweetolebob (La) (buffgun@hotmail.com), November 20, 1998.