this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
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42
How do wages and tax work in the US? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Sometimes I see on American TV that once a year (I think) they try to figure out how much tax they owe and send off a cheque. How does this really work?

Id struggle very much to calculate this. Do you keep receipts for everything?

Is there no system where taxes are automatically taken out of your monthly wages? Id be interested to hear some examples of what you pay, and how you calculate it all if possible.

In the UK pretty much every has monthly tax taken automatically, unless you are self employed.

The way it works for me for example last month I made:

£2282.58 and £435.92 was deducted. £247 in tax and 98.77 national insurance. £90.15 went to my pension.

So what would your payslip look like? No deductions? Or am I just getting the wrong idea from America TV shows?

Thanks

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's a racket. The government does receive enough information to automatically calculate taxes for 90% of us, but Intuit and HR Block lobbied congress to keep it complicated and not allow automatic filing.

My paycheck has deductions for tax, healthcare insurance, and 401k (superannuation) so net around 50% of gross like everyone else, and we don't generally have to pay more at year end.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's really frustrating how many things are bad because some assholes are making money off of it. Saint Luigi, please bless up in these trying times.