On Sun, Mar 16, 2003 at 01:45:09AM +0000, Jose J. Ortiz-Carlo wrote: > If I use my experience as a frame of reference, roughly 9.22% from the > monthly paycheck goes to Social Security and Medicare, while only 7.5% > go to local state taxes.
In the 50 states, last I checked, we paid 6.2% for social security and 1.45% for Medicare. Add to that the Federal income tax, ranging from 10% to 38.6% (a median income person would pay around 15% net for Federal income tax since it is graduated). State income taxes range from 0 to about 10%. If we take a median figure for state tax of 3%, then adding it up for a median income person we have about 26%. > This amounts to a deduction of a 16.72% from your salary in tax > related discounts alone, which is not taking into consideration the > calculations that are finalized when you file your tax return and > the deductions to which you may be eligible or not, depending on > your bracket, etc. From my experience, at the time you file the tax > return, you end up paying a little bit more which takes it around to > (approximately) one third of your yearly salary. And that's A LOT. You seem to use the words differently than they are used in the States. A deduction is normally a REDUCTION in your taxes (technically, you deduct some expense from your income which results in a lower taxable income and thus a lower tax). I don't see how you get from 16.72% to 33.3%. Could you explain? If your ~17% figure is correct, it looks like your taxes are lower than in the States. If your 33% figure is correct, then it is higher. > As far as tax-related mark-ups for prices of articles, my guesstimate > is that it would be somewhere in the vicinity of the 3 to 9 percent > (and maybe a little higher), depending on the article and where it > comes from. Sales taxes in the states and localities I've lived in (Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey) have ranged from about 5% up to 8%. > Our current trade agreement needs a little working, too. For example, > products like Tylenol or Bausch&Lomb Contact Lens Care Products are > produced in PR, but you can't appreciate a difference in price that > would reflect the fact that they are manufactured locally, as one > would normally come to expect. A 50 pill bottle of Tylenol PM Extra > Strength Gelcaps can go up to $6 or more, and it is manufactured HERE. > This is irrelevant of where you buy. That doesn't sound so strange to me. With Tylenol, you are paying a lot for the name, so where it is manufactured isn't so relevant. If you buy generic acetiminophen tablets, it will be less, perhaps as little as half the price of Tylenol. -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
