These are tax brackets for 2019.
Simple, right?
But many of us make a common mistake when
looking at this.
Let's say my income is $84,000.
You might think that puts me in the third
bracket.
So I would owe the federal government 22%
of my income.
This is wrong.
And it's causing us to have uninformed debates
about tax policy.
Here's how it actually works.
Let's go back to my $84,000 income.
Now, instead of thinking of tax rates
as brackets,
we should think of them as pockets.
But first there's one special pocket we need
to talk about.
The money we put in this pocket is not taxed.
The government automatically lets single people
put $12,000 in this special pocket — and
more for couples.
But if you spend a lot of money on things
like medical expenses or charitable donations,
you can sometimes put in more.
These are called "deductions."
With the $70,000 that’s left over we can
start filling up the pockets.
This first pocket has room for $9,700, so
I only pay 10% on this money.
Then I pay 12% on the money in the next pocket.
And then 22% on the money in this pocket.
These are called marginal tax rates.
And that's how these brackets actually work.
So if I get a raise, that new money goes into the first pocket
with empty space.
When space runs out, we put it in the next
pocket.
So the raise, and only the raise, would be
partially taxed at 22%.
And partially at 24%.
So, when politicians say they want to raise
the top tax rate, it doesn't necessarily mean
these pockets — and your money — are affected.
They're talking about the tax rates on the
pockets way over there,
which are only used once people have filled
in these smaller one.
Marginal tax rates are a pretty simple concept,
once you get the hang of it.
So the next time a politician says the government
wants to "take away 70% of your income"
just send them this video
