this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
177 points (99.4% liked)
Ask
436 readers
165 users here now
Rules
- Be nice
- Posts must be legitimate questions (no rage bait or sea lioning)
- No spam
- NSFW allowed if tagged
- No politics
- For support questions, please go to [email protected]
founded 1 month ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'm surprised that nobody mentioned tax brackets.
I laughed my ass off when my racist uncle smugly explained that he turned down a raise, because that would put him in an upper tax rate and cost him more money than the raise was worth.
Tried to explain how income tax works. Didn't go through that thick skull of his.
This misconception is widespread enough that I can only think that it is deliberately perpetuated by the ruling class to save them money. The number of people who are convinced that going up a tax bracket could mean you make less total money is astounding, and many of them are like your uncle— utterly convinced to the point that being informed correctly sounds like naivety to them.
Another example is "Don't work overtime, the taxes cost more than you make."
Unless your marginal tax rate for your overtime is > 100%, that's simply false. Given that all marginal income tax rates in the US are < 100% (that I know of).