Demystifying American Taxes

It's tax season here in America, so it's time to procrastinate and complain about how complicated they are. Luckily, if you have a basic understanding of math, you are completely capable of understanding how they work.

---

Thanks to Suibhne, Cogito, and SophsNotes for educating me on foreign taxes.

-

[Median Household Income]

[State Income Tax]

[Withholdings Tables]

[2017 Income Tax Tables]

[2018 Income Tax Tables]

[Sales Tax Rates]

[Average Individual Income and Median Household Income]

[45% of Americans Don't Pay Income Tax]

---

Photo Credits -

Music Credits -
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Intro Art and Channel Avatar by PoetheWonderCat

---

Hashtags: #politics #economics #ecomony #money #tax #taxes #taxbill #plan #government #taxcuts #taxreform #income #incometax #irs #refund

[KnowingBetter]

The last version of this video had a number of errors. This is the corrected version and took a few days to get back up. Sorry for it looking like a straight re-upload, hope you enjoy!

[thematt]

Since you're plugging Turbo Tax, I just want to take a second to remind everyone that Turbo Tax, H&R Block, and pretty much all tax companies have been successfully lobbying the US Congress for years to make it ILLEGAL for the IRS to prepare and complete your tax forms for you, for free. The IRS still does this, but most people don't know because it isn't advertised. If they had their way, they government would require you to pay them for tax preparation every year.

[ItsJustMe]

The BEST teacher I've ever had, explained order of operations in math... by having us do hypothetical taxes, using the real, current tax brackets. That was my first year off high school, and to this day, the most valuable thing I've ever had to do. All because one of the kids asked "when will I never need this in my real life?!"

[oreos]

"It's really not that complicated"

Me, at the end of the video: wow its almost like I didn't even watch this at all

[Meganopteryx]

The main thing I learned from the video is that the IRS is run by Minecraft zombies.

[midnight_commander]

I'm going to donate my entire tax refund to you Patreon.

Uh, so that means you owe me $1256.79...

[MorganZ]

It is irritating that the government already knows what is owed to you or you owe them, but they still make you file a return.

There are countries out there who just do everything automatically, based on the DATA THEY ALREADY HAVE, and then just send you a "Hey, this is what we've got, check our math if you want to" letter. It'd be so much better to move to that system, but I bet all these companies that benefit (H&R Block, Intuit, et cetera) probably lobby pretty hard against it.

[kfstreich]

Taxes aren't complicated if you are employed.

Taxes are awful if you are self employed and try to build your own investment income....

[jager]

"Let's not make him married, though, life's hard enough as it is."
The words of a wise sage

[nicholascasbarra]

In Australia when a job is advertised, you're told the pre-tax amount that you'll get paid. Your take-home pay will be less than that. Your employer does need to pay superannuation (our retirement fund) over and above your pre-tax earnings. So a job ad will likely say "$30, 000pa +super" but you have to take tax out of the $30k. You might be thinking of GST (our sales tax) which is factored into the advertised price. Any catalogue, shop shelf, restaurant menu etc will give you the price with the tax included. It's not added at the cashier.

[nameu]

I used to commit tax fraud by setting my 3ds to a Delaware zip code to avoid paying sales tax.

[mbg]

America: "36% income tax is insane!"
Denmark: **Laughs in 42%**
America: "7% average sales tax, that isn't figured into the price tag"
Denmark: **Laughs in 25%, that is figured into the price tag**
Americans: "Taxes are hard"
Danes: **Laughs in just getting a bill**

[deusexaethera]

0:20 - "If you have a basic understanding of high school algebra, then you already know more than you need to understand taxes."

If you have a basic understanding of high school algebra, then your understanding of math is higher than the average American.

[jamestown]

10:09
I feel sorry for that Enclave Soldier. It must be difficult being a single father.

[christiandevey]

(This is assuming I live in the Wyoming)
All right to start of I make $0
0
-0.062*0
-0.0145*0
/* I don't know anything so I'll go with the number in the video */
-0.123*0
0.10*0
So the government gets $0 in taxes from me (ha ha sticking it to the man)

[iammrbeat]

Not that complicated? Then why do we need 73, 954 pages to explain our tax code? (Reposted comment)

[Christoffer]

"But in order to keep that same level of revenue it would have to be something like 36%, which is insane!"
Don't mind me. I'll just be sitting over here with our 37% income tax in the lowest bracket. Regards from Denmark :)

[manicjackson]

I've been marathoning your stuff and I am impressed with how knowledgeable and succinct you are on a wide variety of topics. More importantly the way you make it easily digestible and comprehensive. I am not going to be doing taxes because my income isn't taxable, but still I know better.

[BearKat]

Hey man! I just wanted to comment and say this video is great and extremely informative. You put hard work into this and it shows. I subbed after watching just one video (dirty words in economics), and now I’m binging everything. Keep up this awesome work my dude!

[bcubed]

Claiming zero on your W4 is good for people with poor impulse control. Many people can't save unless they do this.