主题：【原创】续－揭开所谓美国工资和购买力真相的真相 -- 海外俗人

现在让我们来看看这个三口之家总收入为50，303家庭的报税情况。

50，303的毛工资中，每月250的集体医保个人扣除额和5%的退休基金的扣除额210元，可作为免税收入而不计入纳税总额。所以总收入应为44，788。

下面的减税额可用标准减税额（夫妻俩人2 X 5，700=11，400）和分类减税额（也就是大家提到的房贷利息，地产税等地总和。其中也包括发工资时已扣除的州税）两者间的高者。按上文中的15年期15万贷款的情况，第一年付的利息总额为6，620，第二年为6，330，越往后利息越少。就按第一年最大的6，620来算，加上地产税1，500（一般为房价的0。5%到1%不等），再加上州税（231*12=2,772),总共的分类减税额为10,892,还是少于11，400的标准减税额，所以用标准减税额更合算。（其实对收入不高和房贷金额少的人来说，通常情况下还是标准额比分类减税额要高）。到此时，应纳税收入已为44，788－11，400 = 33，388。

接下来还有一个叫豁免额的东西，是以家庭人口来算的。三个人就是3 X 3,650 = 10,905. 33，388减去10，905等于22，483。这就是最终的应纳税收入。根据2009年底税表，这个收入对应的应纳税为2，536。

而上文中用15%来算的联邦税为每月629，一年交了7，548。两者的差5，012，即为多交的联邦税，将得到退税。

另外由于家庭的总收入低于110，000，可以获得全部的一千元的孩子抚养退税。这个家庭最终将得到6，012元的退税。也就是说每个月多出了500元的可支配收入。

这个结果，可能又会引起一番争议了。不过俺的观点还是。多了这500元，只是日子没那么窘迫而已。不仅是俺前面往少说和漏掉的生活消费项目还不少，光一个孩子的生活和教育花费，作父母的应该都清楚。其他各种细节，也就不一一细究了。

揭开所谓美国工资和购买力真相的真相

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General comments, not against you. Just info for people on the forum.

BTW, I have not seen Chinese FAMILY with only 50k in household income (new immigrated students excluded). For friends around me, lowest income level I heard is around USD 90k.

50k household income life is hard in California.

1.State income tax varies from one place to the other. California state income tax is very high among US states. If you move to less socialistic states, such as Texas, Nevada, you pay 0 in state income tax. Pennsylvia is 3.07%. Missouri is around 4% as effective (topping 6% as marginal rate).

2.Depending on tax planning strategy, for people with income around 150k(based on a friend's example), their annual effective FEDERAL TAX RATE (after tax refund after April 15) is around 22%. Married with kids--then effective rate can be a bit lower with all kinds of tax credit.

3.Social security+medicare contribution (not an income tax per se) will eat away 7.65% (cap at around 100k of earned income in 2009 too).

In low state tax place--a Chinese family effective tax rate (including Fed/State/Social security deduction) will be around 30%. You will have 70% disposable income available.

In high state tax place--a typical middle-class Chinese american family effective tax rate will be around 36-40%. NYCity is the most crazy place.

Those percentages do NOT consider the impact of property tax and sales tax because these two depend on INDIVIDUAL CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR.

A few issues:

1.When income becomes even higher, if one falls into AMT category--sorry, income tax will be much higher.

2.Sales tax--it is a state-by-state tax when you purchase goods or service. In US, you can buy online FROM OUT-OF-STATE VENDORS to avoid it--free sales tax/free delivery.

3.Property tax--that's county/state-level tax. If you rent property, then you avoid it. If you own house/apartment, then you have to pay.

China.

1.Apparently it has no sales tax, but it charges VAT and final consumer pays all VAT along the value chain--therefore, you DO PAY TAX ON SALES, you just do not see it back in China.

So do not fool yourself by saying that US tax burden is heavier than China--give me a break, okay?

China follows Europe in 1994 when Zhu RJ reformed China's tax system. VAT is an UK-continental Europe design. Sales tax is an Anglo-American-Canadian choice.

2.Property tax--China will sooner or later adopt it to stablize local provincial gov. fiscal situation. Currently, provinces get 40%(SH, beijing) of fiscal revenue from land license income--so long as one is not an idiot, one should figure out this fiscal model is not sustainable in the long run.

If house price collapses, so will be provincial fiscal balance--for any gov. officials, you should hope China's housing prices will not fall.

Sooner or later, (real estate) property tax will come to china--therefore, middle-class family tax burden will race towards the Canadian/European level. Bye-bye, America.

Anyway, if you just rent, then it is not a problem.

3.China's public(excluding housing fund) pension and medicare contribution--every employee working in China has to contribute so-called 4 Jing. It is just the chinese version of US social security/medicare. China charges more percentage-wise because of the unfavorable demographical shift in the future.

4.Individual income tax--a joke. Very poorly designed system with many loopholes, with no consideration for family situation (many kids to support, old people to support, married with non-working spouse), with little tax credits, but WITH HIGH PROGRESSIVE RATEs and small brackets.

Keep in mind: US top marginal rate is 38%. China: you figure it out yourself by google.com. That's very indicative of a socialist system. BTW, all individual income tax is charged BY THE CENTRAL GOV. Provinces are PROHIBITED from charging province level income tax.

So China's provincial gov dilemma: it has no revenue from INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX REVENUE, it has only 25% from sales tax(VAT). In US/Canada, those accounted for 70-80% of local gov. fiscal income...

then it is natural that China's provincial gov. will try all their best to maximize land sales income(or actually land license income). And charge all kinds of FEES.

It is also natural that property tax will come to China sooner or later... Capital will flee to avoid tax, labor is slow to move around, BUT REAL ESTATE is sitting duck waiting to be taxed---of course gov. will target real estate property first.

Final comment: if you want to know the true level of tax burden in one economy, just collect the total tax revenue number from China'govs and then divide it by China GDP.

Any tax burden on corporation will finally pass over to consumers.

that ratio will be very funny if you compare between China and US. China is actually closer to socialist Europe.

It is weird that chinese even compare China to US.

While, BTW, ever after we put a blah-blah talk-show man called Obama in the oval office, US is also running towards the European spectrum. So maybe in the future, Europe/US/China will be "neighbors" in terms of overall tax burden.

note: "In US, you can buy online FROM OUT-OF-STATE VENDORS to avoid it--free sales tax/free delivery."

For business buyer, you still have to accrue the sales tax and pay to the State where it located. There is now a champaign to close the loophole for individuals buying online without paying taxes so I think that benefits will be gone soon.

The ugliest thing in US system is that the hard working low-skill people make almost nothing better than those who do nothing but rely on wellfare for a living. This is the most unfair part of the US system. It just makes more people to stop working and join in the wllfare system and it will finally ruin the whole country. No politican dare to challenge the system and it will burned for sure in the future.

Califormia state income tax at 9.3% for income over 47K. Wow, that sucks.

这里给俗人兄歪一下楼。如果你在美国混饭吃，每年能拿到大笔的退税，这是一件很光荣的事，但并不是一件很划算的事；因为你是在给免煮柿油提供无息贷款。如果你愿意为免煮柿油做贡献，就权当我啥也没说。

否则的话，可以考虑重填一下W4表，把退税的这笔钱每次发工资的时候分期分批地先拿回来，最起码找免煮柿油要点利息。如果你本不需要用这笔钱，可以把它放在401K或其它退休金里面。如果你就是存到年底再用的话，可以每个月把它定期存到一个存款账户、或者一个国库券基金里面去。

当然，你改W4的时候，不能太狠了，要是欠了免煮柿油太多的税，到时候要交罚款的。

钱，欠下的税下年四月15日最后报税日寄出。

is difficult everywhere. it is almost impossible in CA.

most chinese people here probably in 150k to 250k range, anywhere less than 100k, life is tough.

The notion that low-skill people will simply quit working and collecting welfare is just a smoke screen. If enough people drop off work force, the minimum wage should increase which is not happening. The most unfair thing are below poverty level minimum wage and the shell game played at Wall street. In fact, US and Europe are not as different as people perceive.

你的分类里面还可以加，比如慈善，小孩的教育费用等等。通常分类出来的钱比标准的要好，不然大家都去填1040EZ算了。

而且你前面算的房子车子也算得太狠。50K的收入，可以买一辆不错的二手车，也许只有7K，8K。现在的房子，全美四卧室的中值也就在200多K。50K的收入通常就买condo去了，那个中值就更低了。次贷危机之前，美国人还是很舒服的。买房可以零首付。因为那时候房产一直在增值，也没必要买30年期的固定贷款。有很多房贷形式。可以先买个几年（利率会比较低），然后到期了再做refinance，甚至因为房价在增长，你可以refinance出更多的钱来。再说了，也许很多50K收入的家庭，压根没有房子的压力。毕竟我们是移民，那些美国人可不是。

所以吧，我觉得你这么一进一出的，还是少算了不少的。

The low minimum wage is the root cause that makes people feel no difference between working and not working. I am not talking about the notion, it's been a reality long time ago when local uneducated, low skill people stopping work and those jobs are now done by Hispanic immigrants. A fair society should only protect young, senior and truely diabled people and make all other lazy people living miserably and push them to work. I tried to be not too racial but hope you know what I mean.

能付的起Daycare的费用而最后得到减税吗？买7，8千的车，除非你是非常手巧能自己动手，否则维护的费用加上去，会比新车还贵。

别忘了我莫名其妙的给的五万元的头款。真以为人人都有遗产？自己存，他那六千的退税一分不动，也得八年多吧。

还有很多老中都不太了解的，美国人中因为离结婚次数太多，孩子也多，每月工资中要扣掉支付离异方抚养孩子的费用的人大有人在。一般没深交，人家也不愿说。

最近的近似疯狂的低利率，是不可能长久的。

教育费用申报不仅仅是daycare。5万收入的家庭也不仅仅是只有婴儿。你不能把思维局限在这上面。同样的，慈善捐助也是如此。小孩长大了，不要的玩具，衣服，以前还有car seat（现在不给了），等等如果卖不出价钱，都可以捐。美国的二手市场也是很火爆的。甚至汽车，太老旧了，不值得一修，但还是能跑，卖不钱，你也可以捐了。你要想着捐，5万也一样能捐得出来。我怀疑你平时不大搞捐赠。我做学生，收入只有2万刀的时候，都能捐东西出来，我想不出5万的收入怎么就捐不出来。

7，8千的旧车能被你说得这么不堪，我怀疑你买过二手车没有。照你这想法，二手车市场不必存在了。你当美国人是傻子么。

你给了5万元头款和我说得有什么关系。我说的是5万收入的人大部分估计就不会买20万的房子。5万收入是median。condo或者2-bed的townhouse的median也不会在20万，也许只有10万，现在可能更低。你整个的估计就不成立，算狠了。看median是一个比较好的方法，远好过因为个人所在地的不同瞎争一气。

美国人离婚还是不离婚，你能知道多少。拿这个来说事就没什么意思了。

我说的利率是几年前的，不是现在的。房贷不是只有固定贷款的。

先说孩子教育经费，你先说说还有那些教育经费可以减税.你不是说education credit吧？前一个是减少纳税收入，后一个是直接减少税额。

tuition and fees deduction.相应买的书，电脑等等都可以报税。

看1040上那些instruction喽。一个一个说过来，要累死。

不知道有多少人会看我这个帖子，但这里还是祥林嫂一下。

一般来说，每年报税时在不受惩罚的情况下可以补交的税是非常小的一个数字。所以，W4中预扣税少了，也不是一个划算的买卖。