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Message:: [QUOTE="-jeffB, post: 4699713, member: 27832"]Okay, digging into those devilish details just a little bit: Fed: the top tax bracket is actually 37% -- but that only applies for income over $500K or so. The 35% rate kicks in just over $200K/year. If you make less than $160K/yr, your maximum marginal rate is 24%. FICA: for Social Security, 6.2% of your income up to $137.7K, plus 1.45% for Medicare. Above that income level, additional income incurs zero SSI tax. (There's no limit for the 1.45% Medicare.) If you make $500K, your effective FICA rate is (137700 * .062 + 500000 * 1.45) / 500000 * 100% = 3.1%. State, real estate, sales tax -- too much variation by state, I won't address it here. However, it is frequently the case that taxes paid to one entity can be deducted when you're computing taxes for the next entity. (The ironically named Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did limit those deductions, thereby INCREASING taxes for many taxpayers. I'm happy to say this isn't the place to go into the politics involved there.) I will say that anyone earning enough to land in that top tax bracket will certainly be structuring their assets and income so that they pay a lot less than 37%. I'm not a big fan of tax codes complex enough to both allow and encourage that sort of thing, but that's what we have, and what we're likely to have for the rest of my life, regardless of who wins what when.[/QUOTE]