Search forums

Forums

Export thread

So did your taxes just go up?

Jan 4, 2013#1

GasBandit

Mine did. Apparently a lot of people are going apeshit over their smaller paycheck now.

"But... but but... we were only supposed to soak the rich!"

Sapraaz, madda fakka!

Jan 4, 2013#2

Covar

Shouldn't changes only affect 2013 rates? I'll admit I'd be livid if my withholding for 2012 was too small for a change enacted in the final days of December.

Jan 4, 2013#3

Dave

Everyone's checks went down because the "compromise" for the fiscal cliff included letting a social security tax holiday expire. This amounts to about 2% of your check.

Jan 4, 2013#4

Necronic

When Bush decided to do the Tax Rebate in the form of a check I thought it was a pretty stupid idea, but I've really come to change my mind now. These "temporary" tax cuts are pretty much never considered to be temporary in the long run, which is really, really, REALLY bad, both politically and economically. People get used to them and then they just enter into the realm of expected.

That's kind of the problem with the Bush/Obama tax cuts as well. No one thinks of them as temporary, even though they were entered with sunset provisions for review every year. But if you get cut a check? That's definitely considered temporary.

I hate to say this....but we as a people are simply too financially immature to use "temporary" tax cuts.

Jan 4, 2013#5

strawman

The sunset provisions are required by law.

Jan 4, 2013#6

Necronic

That doesn't make any sense. You can change tax rates without a sunset provision can't you? Otherwise we would still be reviewing WW2 era tax rates.

Edit: ah ok, just read on the Byrd act. Any change to tax rates that increases the deficit is required to have a sunset provision.

Jan 4, 2013#7

GasBandit

A "temporary" tax cut is a cop out trying to blackmail a future congress to make them permanent or risk "raising taxes." However, it seems now the bluff has been called, and the taxes are going back up.

Jan 4, 2013#8

sixpackshaker

My work took out the higher amount for this month because the compromise took too long. Since they had to turn in something, they used the old law. So next month's check should have a larger take home.

Same thing happened last year.

Jan 4, 2013#9

Charlie Don't Surf

thanks Obama

Jan 4, 2013#10

Bowielee

GasBandit said:
A "temporary" tax cut is a cop out trying to blackmail a future congress to make them permanent or risk "raising taxes." However, it seems now the bluff has been called, and the taxes are going back up.

This is why I find the GOP politicians that run on the platform of absolutely no tax increases laughable. Taxes need to be raised and lowered based on what the economy is doing at the time. Making a promise to never raise(or lower for that matter) taxes is basically like saying "I promise never to go to the bathroom during my term".

I'm really just sick to death of the sound bite politics.

Jan 4, 2013#11

Covar

Dave said:
Everyone's checks went down because the "compromise" for the fiscal cliff included letting a social security tax holiday expire. This amounts to about 2% of your check.

Oh I see. Well in that case...

Jan 4, 2013#12

Necronic

GasBandit said:
A "temporary" tax cut is a cop out trying to blackmail a future congress to make them permanent or risk "raising taxes." However, it seems now the bluff has been called, and the taxes are going back up.

As Steinman pointed out though, thanks to the Byrd act ALL tax cuts are technically temporary. So you can't really call it a cop out since they are all hit with sunset provisions, regardless of intent.

Jan 4, 2013#13

GasBandit

Necronic said:
As Steinman pointed out though, thanks to the Byrd act ALL tax cuts are technically temporary. So you can't really call it a cop out since they are all hit with sunset provisions, regardless of intent.

Which is absolutely idiotic.

Jan 4, 2013#14

SpecialKO

Went up by exactly 2%. Only hurts a little.

Jan 4, 2013#15

GasBandit

SpecialKO said:
Went up by exactly 2%. Only hurts a little.

I think you mean, your take home was reduced by a further 2%. The tax increase was more than 2%.

Jan 4, 2013#16

Tress

I don't pay Social Security taxes, since I pay into the teacher's pension fund instead. So my paycheck won't be affected. Haha!

Now I get to keep raking in all that sweet, sweet teacher money and keep on living the high life.

Jan 4, 2013#17

PatrThom

My paycheck was about 7% smaller than I was expecting, but it turned out that was just because I had less OT than I expected. I'll find out how much my pay was actually affected once my hours go back to their normal, non-holiday craziness.

--Patrick

Jan 4, 2013#18

Thread Necromancer

PatrThom said:
My paycheck was about 7% smaller than I was expecting, but it turned out that was just because I had less OT than I expected. I'll find out how much my pay was actually affected once my hours go back to their normal, non-holiday craziness.

--Patrick

This. My paycheck was about half of what I am used to, 400ish less than I was expecting, and well low of what I need. But then, the holidays and time off and bad work and a new 680 dollars of unexpected child support really took a toll on this pay check so I didn't even notice the tax increase.
Unfortunately it's still going to be taking a toll on next pay day also. So it'll be a month before I (hopefully) return closer to normal pay.

Jan 5, 2013#19

Hailey Knight

My Social Security cost went up by 2%.

But I've been doing so much overtime that I can't tell if my paycheck got smaller or not. I won't know until I return to normal work hours.

Jan 12, 2013#20

jwhouk

All righty... just had a chance to review and update my stuff for '13. Since I initially became a homeowner back in '99 (and got a legal copy of Excel to use through work), I've tracked my payroll statements - along with my wife's. I've now got 14 years of data to play with, so I can give you some general numbers without giving away my actual pay (though I think you could probably find it somewhere online, if you looked - the joys of being a state employee).

So: here's what my taxes were for the last 14 years, expressed as a percentage of my gross pay. Keep in mind this is the combined totals of Federal, FICA/Social Security and Medicare taxes, compared to gross pay:

2012: 10.9%
2011: 13.8%
2010: 16.3%
2009: 16.2%
2008: 18.6%
2007: 17.6%
2006: 17.5%
2005: 13.9%
2004: 16.7%
2003: 17.1%
2002: 18.5%
2001: 19.7%
2000: 18.1%
1999: 17.6%

Through exactly one pay period in 2013, my federal taxes are 14.2% of my gross, which isn't as bad as it was in 2010.

By the way - the 2005 drop can be explained by one thing: I started paying for my own health insurance halfway through the year. (Yeah, yeah, I know.)

Jan 13, 2013#21

Silent Bob

hmm, increase taxes and hoping consumers keep consuming in a consumption based economy.

I'll be in my fort.

Jan 14, 2013#22

PatrThom

The alternative is to make all our consumables more cheaply. Not a problem, right? We're really good at doing that. Why, it's even cheaper to make money, now. Should have this thing all ship-shape in no time.

--Patrick

Jan 14, 2013#23

Covar

Lost $50 between this paycheck and the last. So about $100 a month. My last raise gave me about $30 net increase on my check so I'm losing about $40 a month from when I started this job. If it's just withholding it probably won't be a big deal, but if it's FICA stuff I'm just going to resign myself to the fact that I'll never see my share if it again.

Jan 14, 2013#24

Bubble181

jwhouk said:
All righty... just had a chance to review and update my stuff for '13. Since I initially became a homeowner back in '99 (and got a legal copy of Excel to use through work), I've tracked my payroll statements - along with my wife's. I've now got 14 years of data to play with, so I can give you some general numbers without giving away my actual pay (though I think you could probably find it somewhere online, if you looked - the joys of being a state employee).

So: here's what my taxes were for the last 14 years, expressed as a percentage of my gross pay. Keep in mind this is the combined totals of Federal, FICA/Social Security and Medicare taxes, compared to gross pay:

2012: 10.9%

2011: 13.8%

2010: 16.3%

2009: 16.2%

2008: 18.6%

2007: 17.6%

2006: 17.5%

2005: 13.9%

2004: 16.7%

2003: 17.1%

2002: 18.5%

2001: 19.7%

2000: 18.1%

1999: 17.6%

Through exactly one pay period in 2013, my federal taxes are 14.2% of my gross, which isn't as bad as it was in 2010.

By the way - the 2005 drop can be explained by one thing: I started paying for my own health insurance halfway through the year. (Yeah, yeah, I know.)

I've gone back 5 years, and haven't been able to find a single month where it dipped below 50%*. Americans complaining about their fuckin' taxes.

**

*Yes, of my gross. My employer pays about €3.700 a month for me and I go home with about €1.550, give or take depending on OT and nights and weekends worked etc.
**Partially joking in that I'm well aware I get a lot more in return, too, in the form of medical care and such.[DOUBLEPOST=1358179295][/DOUBLEPOST]That ssaid, yes, my taxes DID go up quite a bit between last month and this one

Jan 14, 2013#25

jwhouk

That's only because I didn't include my state income tax rates. Generally, double the amounts you see above and you've got a good idea of my tax withholding.

Jan 14, 2013#26

Necronic

So I lost about 1.4% on my take home. Not bad at all considering.

Jan 14, 2013#27

GasBandit

Texas has no state income tax. (But it does have an 8.25% sales tax).

Jan 14, 2013#28

sixpackshaker

To cross i's an dot t's, Texas has a 5% sales tax. The counties and municipalities get the other 3.5%

Jan 16, 2013#29

dill616

I work for a state institution and they sent out an email containing the following:

As you may have heard from news reports this week, the United States Congress did not extend The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (Tax Relief Act of 2012) which reduced the Social Security tax rate by two percentage points. Because this act was not renewed for 2013, Social Security withholding will return to the previous deduction of 6.2 percent. Employees will see that Social Security withholdings will increase from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent and impact your net pay beginning with the January 15, 2013 paycheck.

Although Medicare withholding will continue at 1.45 percent, there is an additional change that will increase the deduction by .9 percent for a total of 2.35 percent for employees earning annual compensation at amounts defined in the new law. Additional notice of withholding changes will be provided to those employees. When reviewing your upcoming paycheck or your payroll statement of deposit, please note that the Social Security and the Medicare deductions are combined and listed under the FICA deduction heading.

This comes after the state voted to give us a 3% raise (for the first time in over 10 years) but decided to increase our Social Security withholdings by 2% at the same time. Keep in mind that I work for the lowest paying public university in the state. It also happens to be the largest and most lucrative. Last year, the local paper published a list of people who made over $100k at the non-profit university where I work. There were over 200 people on it. Yeah. Suck a nut, assholes.

Jan 16, 2013#30

Bowielee

dill616 said:
I work for a state institution and they sent out an email containing the following:

As you may have heard from news reports this week, the United States Congress did not extend The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (Tax Relief Act of 2012) which reduced the Social Security tax rate by two percentage points. Because this act was not renewed for 2013, Social Security withholding will return to the previous deduction of 6.2 percent. Employees will see that Social Security withholdings will increase from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent and impact your net pay beginning with the January 15, 2013 paycheck.

Although Medicare withholding will continue at 1.45 percent, there is an additional change that will increase the deduction by .9 percent for a total of 2.35 percent for employees earning annual compensation at amounts defined in the new law. Additional notice of withholding changes will be provided to those employees. When reviewing your upcoming paycheck or your payroll statement of deposit, please note that the Social Security and the Medicare deductions are combined and listed under the FICA deduction heading.

This comes after the state voted to give us a 3% raise (for the first time in over 10 years) but decided to increase our Social Security withholdings by 2% at the same time. Keep in mind that I work for the lowest paying public university in the state. It also happens to be the largest and most lucrative. Last year, the local paper published a list of people who made over $100k at the non-profit university where I work. There were over 200 people on it. Yeah. Suck a nut, assholes.

I don't see how federal increases have anything to do with your state increases.

Jan 16, 2013#31

PatrThom

Bowielee said:
I don't see how federal increases have anything to do with your state increases.

The State increased her pay. The Fed tax increase reduced her net pay by almost the same amount. Net effect = only about a 1% raise.

--Patrick

Jan 16, 2013#32

dill616

PatrThom said:
The State increased her pay. The Fed tax increase reduced her net pay by almost the same amount. Net effect = only about a 1% raise.

--Patrick

On top of that, the state decision to increase our salary by 3% came at the price of having to put an extra 2% more of our checks into retirement. I don't really have a problem with more of my paycheck going towards retirement, but we basically lost money in the entire process.

Jan 16, 2013#33

Bowielee

PatrThom said:
The State increased her pay. The Fed tax increase reduced her net pay by almost the same amount. Net effect = only about a 1% raise.

--Patrick

Yeah, that sucks and all, but one has really nothing to do with the other. They're determined by two completely separate governing bodies.

Jan 16, 2013#34

dill616

Bowielee said:
Yeah, that sucks and all, but one has really nothing to do with the other. They're determined by two completely separate governing bodies.

Okay, main point; my paycheck is taking a hit from the feds and there is no real hope for promotion or a raise. Le boo.

Jan 16, 2013#35

PatrThom

Bowielee said:
Yeah, that sucks and all, but one has really nothing to do with the other. They're determined by two completely separate governing bodies.

dill616 said:
Okay, main point; my paycheck is taking a hit from the feds and there is no real hope for promotion or a raise. Le boo.

Right. I took it to mean she wasn't complaining that one caused the other, she was just complaining that governmental machinations in general caused her paycheck to shrink, and it's this net result which makes her unhappy, and not the fact that it is da gubbermint's fault.

--Patrick

Jan 19, 2013#36

PatrThom

(found on Reddit)

The article starts out with the following sentence (hyperlink included):
"So this is apparently a real thing from the Wall Street Journal."

The thing mocks itself. That $650,000 family in particular is bizarre to the point of incredulity: those people could literally stop working entirely, live extremely well on $180,000 while doing nothing but watching television all day and staying home with their kids, and leave their high-salary jobs with their oh-so-onerous tax requirements to people who actually appreciate them.

I don't know about y'all, but the gross income of our entire family is less than the amount of tax paid by their representative "single person." So you'll forgive my incredibly low level of empathy.

--Patrick

Jan 19, 2013#37

Bowielee

I literally made less than 15k this past year.

Jan 19, 2013#38

PatrThom

Bowielee said:
I literally made less than 15k this past year.

Welcome to the 99%!
It's BYOB. I hope you brought enough to share.

--Patrick

Jan 19, 2013#39

Bowielee

PatrThom said:
Welcome to the 99%!
It's BYOB. I hope you brought enough to share.

--Patrick

I'm used to it. I grew up well below the poverty level.

Jan 19, 2013#40

PatrThom

I hear ya. I probably make 2-3x what my mother made at my age.
Unfortunately, I probably owe 2-3x what she did, too.

--Patrick

Jan 19, 2013#41

Bowielee

It always makes me laugh when my professors try to tell me that I won't "get rich" becoming a college professor. What they don't realize is that I felt rich when I was making 28k per year.

Jan 19, 2013#42

Eriol

That image is just /facepalm. I don't know what the average income is for single-income earners, or retirees, or anything they're putting out there, but I'll bet it's at LEAST 100k (or 500k, or 600k, depending on the category) less than the numbers there.

just... wtf?

Feb 17, 2013#43

PatrThom

Dave said:
Everyone's checks went down because the "compromise" for the fiscal cliff included letting a social security tax holiday expire. This amounts to about 2% of your check.

PatrThom said:
I'll find out how much my pay was actually affected once my hours go back to their normal, non-holiday craziness.

Results are in. My most recent paycheck was "normal," and compared to the only "normal" paycheck I received in December (my hours differ by perhaps 20min total, no OT, etc--pretty fair comparison), my take-home pay has dropped somewhere around 2.5%, which these days amounts to a drop of less than one tank of gas per paycheck at today's prices. Not a disaster by any means, but I will certainly notice (and miss) it.

--Patrick

Feb 17, 2013#44

Bowielee

Man, I still can't believe that graphic. Where the hell do these people live? Their "investment income" for most is greater than the most I've ever earned in a year in my life.

I also love how they look so sad, with their making 250K per year. Boo hoo

Feb 17, 2013#45

PatrThom

Their "investment income" borders on being more than I've made in the best 5 years of my life combined.

--Patrick

Feb 17, 2013#46

Bowielee

According to the 2011 Census, Median household income is around 50k. I have no idea where the WSJ got their numbers from, but it sure ain't the average American household.

Feb 17, 2013#47

DarkAudit

Bowielee said:
According to the 2011 Census, Median household income is around 50k. I have no idea where the WSJ got their numbers from, but it sure ain't the average American household.

They work for News Corp. "Pull it out of your ass," is their prime directive.

Feb 17, 2013#48

Bowielee

Also, why aren't these pictures memes yet?[DOUBLEPOST=1361094431][/DOUBLEPOST]

Feb 17, 2013#49

Hailey Knight

Those images go to how out of touch some people are with real life.

Feb 17, 2013#50

Eriol

Bowielee said:
According to the 2011 Census, Median household income is around 50k. I have no idea where the WSJ got their numbers from, but it sure ain't the average American household.

Ya that's basically my point a month ago. Where the hell they got those numbers... it's just so much /facepalm.

Feb 18, 2013#51

jwhouk

As it stands right now, the combined pay level of myself and my wife is projected to be lower than it has been since 2007.

Feb 18, 2013#52

Silent Bob

Jeez, I wish I made as much as a single mom...

Feb 18, 2013#53

Ravenpoe

Silent Bob said:
Jeez, I wish I made as much as a single mom...

The average single person in that graphic makes more in annual investment income than I do working a full time job

Forums