Yesterday I showed you how someone with an income of $45,000 can pay NO Federal income tax (47%-er) . Today I use the same household and show you how they are a major tax PAYER. These things are never as easy as they appear...

Yesterday I wrote a blog entry on how a person or household with an income of $45,000 can end up paying no Federal Income tax on that income and can actually be a net recipient of tax dollars (.  See that HERE.

Today, I want to show that this same household DOES pay federal taxes, but not necessarily the Income Tax. The taxes they cannot escape paying are Payroll Taxes,---Social Security and Medicare taxes. These taxes are dedicated to paying benefits for retirees and other eligible recipients.

The Social Security tax is 6.2% of income and it is applied to income earned up to $110,100.  Any income OVER this amount is NOT subject to the Social Security tax.  So the MAXIMUM that can deducted from someones paycheck is $6,826.20 ($110,100 X 6.2%).  For our sample household, they would pay $2,790 ($45,000 X 6.2%) in Social Security taxes.

The Medicare tax is 1.45% of income and it has NO INCOME LIMIT! As with tax policy, it depends of the what the definition of "income" is. Capital gains and dividends are excluded from the Medicare tax (Social Security tax too), which are generally the province of "the wealthy".  So, our household pays $652.50 ($45,000 X 1.45%) in Medicare taxes.

Remember, these are MANDATORY TAXES. 

The total payroll taxes paid by our sample household is ($6,826.20 + $652.50) $7,478.70.

Federal Income taxes AND payroll taxes both go to the same place---the Federal Governments General Budget--the Big Pot o' Money that is spent on all things federally budgeted for. Social Security and Medicare taxes make a stop through their respective Trust Funds, but only for accounting purposes.

If we add this amount to the "negative" income tax  of  $637(refunded) mentioned at the top, then our sample household effectively has a tax rate of 15.2% ($7,478.70 minus $637.00  then divided by $45,000 X 100).

In this light, our household is certainly not a "47%-er" and net recipient/taker of tax dollars, but percent-wise, they are a major contributor. 

These federal taxes are not the only federal taxes paid by our household. There is the Federal gas tax, other excise taxes levied on a variety of goods we consume, and tariffs on imported goods. These other taxes are more difficult to see, but they should be considered in the over all discussion of tax policy, in my opinion.