I do not know, so this is speculation.  But I suspect if we totaled EVERYTHING (obviously depends on your bracket), income tax through gasoline and road taxes, I bet the average for a household with a total of $75,000/yr of income would be around 60% +.

Anyone have any thoughts here?

Pat

It could be more with such a wide variety of taxes it's hard to keep track of and I'm sure that's intentional.

Many people don't know or realize that there is an 11% tax built-into the sales of sporting goods to include ammunition guns etc.  Its call the Pittman Robertson Act  http://www.nssf.org/factsheets/PDF/PittmanRobertsonFacts.pdf

The American work has been fleeced of his hard earned money while other skate on the government dole! 

I don't know.  Tax freedom day was April 24th for the US average, with a burden of 31%.  What all are we throwing in the mix?  What about aggressive speed traps raking in dough and the license your supposed to buy for just about anything you want to do?

No mater what they take from me, they take less than when they steal the soul, ambition, and liberty of the dependent individuals of the entitlement society.

Greg

It probably depends on what state you live in, too.

Not as much as I would like.  I sure wish I could pay another $50,000 in income tax every year.

Data courtesy of citizens for tax justice:  http://ctj.org/

So, first, not nearly as much is paid in taxes as the media would have you believe.

Second, as they correctly point out, it is not nearly as progressive overall as we tend to think either.

The reason it is not terribly progressive is, as the OP points out, that most of our tax burden is use-based.  In other words, you only pay the tax if you use the taxed product.  Sporting goods and fuel are great examples.  Use taxes are good as they are only targeted at those who benefit from the service the tax funds.  Fuel taxes pay for roads, and Pittman Robertson funds conservation to preserve our great outdoors.

The bad thing about those taxes is they tend to be more out of sight, out of mind.  When I buy sporting goods, I don't have any visible indicator to me, the consumer, that I have just incurred a tax.  Fuel, well, I pay attention to the stickers at the pump, but I don't think most people do.  At least with fuel there is a visible indicator.

The real question that is hard to answer, but to which we all should know the answer is this:  What is the tax rate required to run our municipal, state and national services?  This site lets you analyze the budget:  http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2015USbf_16bs2n_1017_551#usgs302

I see 10% welfare, and I don't get too up in arms.  But, drill into that big health-care wedge and you find that about half of that is health-related welfare.  333 billion to Medicaid, and another almost 100 billion in other medical welfare.  That does start to cause me concern.  And that isn't Obama care, that is legacy medicaid costs that we would have had even without the Affordable Health Care act.

So, rather than getting riled up about what I pay (or don't pay), the country would be better if we all investigated what we are paying for.

SQL;

I don't think this takes into consideration all of the other taxes such as gas tax, etc.  This LOOKS like standard income tax only figures to me.  I could be wrong but this looks pretty standard.

Pat

Pat, please see Note 1 in the graph:

Quote
Taxes include all federal, state & local taxes (personal and corporate income, payroll, property, sales, excise, estate, etc)

I don't know but would guess about 50% at least.  The big thing is to reduce them as much as you can.  If you can go across a county or state line to buy a house where property tax is lower, do it.  Same with driving across a county or state line to save on the price of gas, etc, etc.