what was your 2012 effective federal income tax rate?

[mgkimsal]

yes you can add them on, because the effective tax rate we are all posting already includes the deductability of things like real estate taxes and state taxes.

I guess I was meaning in discussions I have with non-SA people. Sorry for the confusion. I should have worded it better. More specifically, I've worked with people who just add up tax rates - "I'm in a 24% tax range, then 3% property tax, and 6% state income tax, and 1% city tax - I'm paying 33% tax!" when in reality, when you actually look at their effective tax rate (purpose of this thread) it's nowhere near 33%.

[riverwed070707]

This may be too political, but... for those of you paying single digit tax percentages (4%? 2%?!) do you still have some feeling of "I pay too much in tax!"?

No. I actually tend to give a bit of an eyeroll to those who complain about it that I know fall into a similar tax liability as me. I feel pretty fortunate for where we fall and the fact that we are financially stable enough to ride the ups and downs with little impact to our budget.

[MonkeyMama]

I regularly see people complaining about a 0% or negative income tax rate. I think what they mean to complain about is social security taxes. It's just that they don't understand their taxes at all.

Sorry, feh. I will shut up. Maybe we can start a new thread to discuss the results of this thread. We don't have to get political, but these kind of threads naturally lead to a lot of discussion and "OMG why am I paying 10 times as many taxes?"

[phantom]

This may be too political, but... for those of you paying single digit tax percentages (4%? 2%?!) do you still have some feeling of "I pay too much in tax!"?

I think I can answer this without getting political...

A couple years ago, the first time homebuyer credit pushed my tax rate close to 0. It was a weird situation because I had my house custom built, and when I agreed to buy the house, the credit was going to be an interest free loan. But, by the time the house was finished and I actually closed on it, the credit had gone up in value and the requirement to repay it had disappeared. So, I felt like I was getting free money that I had done nothing special to really need or deserve. I decided to take my free money without guilt and try to keep my whining to a minimum in the future when I felt like I was being asked to pay "more than my fair share."

That doesn't mean I won't complain in general when taxes seem ridiculously high or low. But, on a personal level, I suspect that as long as the tax law stays complicated, there will be times when it benefits me and times when it hurts me, and with luck, it will mostly even out in the end.

[mgkimsal]

I think I can answer this without getting political...

<snip>

That doesn't mean I won't complain in general when taxes seem ridiculously high or low. But, on a personal level, I suspect that as long as the tax law stays complicated, there will be times when it benefits me and times when it hurts me, and with luck, it will mostly even out in the end.

Excellent perspective. Thanks

[boefixepa]

No, I don't complain about taxes and I feel that we are paying more our fair share. When you look at all the other taxes out there, I don't bat an eye at it. Our AGI reflects a lot of deductions. When I compare our taxes to the national average (I use turbo tax and they provide this) I can tell you were the difference is -- Charitable Donations -- we contribute on average about 12% of out GROSS income to charity. This reduces our tax liability considerably, even though we make decent money. It's all about what you choose to do with the money you do have. Though charitable donations are not a good method of reducing your taxes, because you are giving your money away, granted you don't have to pay tax on it if you do! I know the money is going to good use and I really don't even consider it as part of my income. I've done it all my life, and so has my spouse, so we don't even look at it as part of our spendable income.

[Gailete]

Married, joint filing.

less than 1%

Self-employed so lots of business deductions, bad health (out of pocket last year including MC supplements $8000+!). High taxes on our home (hubby built it out of lots of cheap reclaimed materials so we spent about $100K on it yet the tax assessor looks at it as a $250K+ home. All sorts of fun things like that. We are getting a refund this year, but I'm still taking one last look through everything before filing it.

[Megalo]

Single
Fed income tax rate: 5.5%
Total effective tax rate: 14.1%

[humandraydel]

This is depressing...mine is 20%!

[Gailete]

Don't feel bad, next year we will be paying through the nose as hubby will be finishing two high priced projects. This year's tax refund is going in the bank to pay for next year's taxes. After that I hope things will settle down more for our tax situation instead of the roller coaster we have been on for so long.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

We pay in the single digits, and no, I don't think I pay too much. For a better country, I'd be happy to pay more.

[TheMom]

Married, joint
6.5%

We don't itemize. It's all the kids helping out.

[dunnrobert700]

There's a calculator where you can game around with different assumptions and see precisely this. If that's your objective you'd probably like it. I think it is based on 2011 tax tables though. You can see it here.

[Diavel_guy]

20% here.

High income, no kids, not married, no home loan....nothing I can deduct. The government loves me!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

MFJ with two kids in 2012 14.96%
MFJ with 1 kid in 2011 14.50%
MFJ with 1 kid in 2010 12.13%
MFJ 2009 8.34%

Solely federal with state add on another 5.25% flat tax. I don't think we pay a ton. We certainly keep a lot of our income considering how high it is.