My youngest brothers paycheck

My youngest brother was complaining to me last night about taxes. See, he's working his first real paycheck job where taxes get taken out (he's had plenty of work doing yard work and dog sitting, etc). The poor guy: his $350ish paycheck was chopped to a measly $290ish by the bad tax man.

Analogy time. In Germany, that $350 would be chopped to about $200 after taxes. And instead of a 6-8% sales tax, make it a 16% one (7% for food). Oh, and that $20 you pay to fill up the RAV4, make it $50. Oh, wait, they've just upped the tax per liter of gas 5 cents. Better make that $55 for a full tank of gas.

That makes it sound not too bad after all, huh? Of course, everything is relative, and when you haven't been paying taxes, even that little bit feels like a lot. Posted by Jinglelady at January 22, 2004 11:46 PM | Previous Blog | TrackBack