On Mar 22, 2005, at 21:33, Martha Krieg wrote:
then if you add on a six percent sales tax on maybe half of what you spend, that's probably about 35%....
Sales tax varies from state to state. Ours (in VA) used to be straight 4.5% on everything but prescription drugs (plus 2%? 2.5%? local tax in restaurants. But I don' eat out, so am uncertain of the figure). As of July, it's gone up to 5% on everything but food, with the prescription drugs still being exempt.
But EU countries also have an equivalent of our sales tax; it's called VAT. It also varies: from country to country, and as to what's exempted or not, or taxed less or more. It's less visible, because its calculated into the price of the goods instead of being slapped on after, but it's there. Usually at 17-22% rate (I think prescription drugs are exempt everywhere and books, in Denmark, are taxed at measly 4% - lucky Denmark <g>)
I maybe wrong but I think that when Margery said it took full 5 months (on average) to pay off the taxman in UK, only the *income tax* was being considered, not the VAT on goods or any other hidden taxes...
I remember how shocked I was at having to to pay $2.08 for something that was priced $2.00 (sales tax in VA was 4% 31 yrs ago), when I first came here. I thought to share my outrage with my Mother on the first visit back home and she gave me this "funny" look... "and how", she asked "do you think Poland is paying for your free schooling, free medical care, army, police, garbage collection, cheap public transport, and student discounts for theatre tickets? The taxes are *there*, just calculated differently; hidden"
And, all of a sudden, I remembered my few experiences of being employed officially (needless to say, when I cleaned appartments with my boyfriend, all the money was ours, untaxed, as was the money I earned tutoring <g>) before leaving Poland... Twice, I worked for a government institution - a school once, and a factory once; in both cases, there were no taxes on the paycheck, but the pay was ridiculously low. Twice, I worked "on contract" -wrote something for the radio once, and interpreted for a private PR firm at an international trade fair once; in both cases, the paycheck was lovely but, by the time I paid my "dues", the money was about the same (and to add inslult to injury, I had to spend over an hour, in a crowded office, dealing with nasty officials, *to* pay the d...d tax <g>)
I don't think we're quite to 41%,
That's 41% *average*; lots of people have to pay lots more, before it levels out there. You took 28% (the higher bracket) as your starting point... :)
Part of the problem is of course that when people calculate what they can afford to buy, they often calculate it against their gross income (before taxes), but only have net income to pay with, so they end up paying interest on their unexpected debt....
And some people use several credit cards, and take each of them at their word, when they say "minimum to pay is $15", forgetting that paying a bill partially incurs interest and late fees which add up to 3 times that. Or they use those checks which the credit card issuers send, every so often, "for your convenience" - not noticing that using such a check incurs a fee of anywhere from $3.85 to $5.00 *per check*. Sorry, but anyone over 25 who's still naive enough to count the "birds in the bush" rather than those in hand... Especially with the current "bush" situation... Well...
-- Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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