What percent of wages to Americans pay in Tax?

Question

I of course mean

what percentage of wages DO americans pay in tax

Answer 1

That varies state by state, and by level of income, and a lot of other things.  It also depends on if you are trying to include things like sales tax, Social security, Medicare, property taxes, etc.

I live in Ohio.  I see about 35% come out of my paycheck for withholding.  I then pay 6% sales tax, and property taxes for my house.  My wife is self employed, so she also is impacted by the self employment tax.  She has to basically with hold 50% of all the money she makes to put towards taxes, before paying property or sales tax.

Answer 2

It really depends on how much you make and the type of tax you're subjected to.  If you are below a certain level, you may actually have a negative tax (ie the earned income credit).

The first $100,000 or so is taxed at 7.65% for FICA.  Everything above that is taxed 1.45%.

Then, depending on filing status and the number of kids and tax deductions, your marginal income tax rate could be between 10% and 35%.

On top of that, then you have your state income tax rates.  That depends on which state you're in.