This is a minor point, but everyone always forgets it—for the radiologist who’s making 200k in California, she’s paying closer to 33% in taxes, 25% going to the federal government and 8% going to California, or about $67,000. That’s because the structure of tax brackets means that the marginal tax rate is not the total tax rate. It’s still a lot of course.
So she’s still saving about $23,000 per year, which is an amount of savings that most people would love to have. Of course, it assumes that automation won’t come for her job, but if it does, a lot of the medical school debt could be discharged in bankruptcy, so at least she wouldn’t be in a horrible position.
Also for USA citizenship, while you nominally have to pay taxes to the US government even if you’re abroad, the first (currently) $108,000 is excluded. That could change in the future, but any government could theoretically institute a policy of international taxation for its citizens, so the US doesn’t seem particularly worse.
That could change in the future, but any government could theoretically institute a policy of international taxation for its citizens, so the US doesn’t seem particularly worse.
Would be rather difficult or impossible for most, since many intl trade treaties forbid double taxation among members. The us is an outlier because it can afford special treatment afaict.
I suspect that the set of universes where America drops the taxation exemption to zero is roughly equal to the universes where those most countries withdraw from those intl trade treaties. That is, it would only happen when crazy things are already happening with international trade.
Agree on that point, though I think the “crazy things are happening” scenario is likely one where money is less legible so countries bother about taxing such things less.
This is a minor point, but everyone always forgets it—for the radiologist who’s making 200k in California, she’s paying closer to 33% in taxes, 25% going to the federal government and 8% going to California, or about $67,000. That’s because the structure of tax brackets means that the marginal tax rate is not the total tax rate. It’s still a lot of course.
Source: https://www.irscalculators.com/tax-calculator
Based on some common med school loan interest rates and terms (see https://www.bankrate.com/loans/student-loans/medical-school-loans/ and https://www.calculator.net/loan-calculator.html?cloanamount=600000&cloanterm=15&cloantermmonth=0&cinterestrate=3.5&ccompound=monthly&cpayback=month&x=65&y=35#amortized-result), she’s probably paying about $50,000 to her loans.
So she’s still saving about $23,000 per year, which is an amount of savings that most people would love to have. Of course, it assumes that automation won’t come for her job, but if it does, a lot of the medical school debt could be discharged in bankruptcy, so at least she wouldn’t be in a horrible position.
Also for USA citizenship, while you nominally have to pay taxes to the US government even if you’re abroad, the first (currently) $108,000 is excluded. That could change in the future, but any government could theoretically institute a policy of international taxation for its citizens, so the US doesn’t seem particularly worse.
Would be rather difficult or impossible for most, since many intl trade treaties forbid double taxation among members. The us is an outlier because it can afford special treatment afaict.
I suspect that the set of universes where America drops the taxation exemption to zero is roughly equal to the universes where those most countries withdraw from those intl trade treaties. That is, it would only happen when crazy things are already happening with international trade.
Agree on that point, though I think the “crazy things are happening” scenario is likely one where money is less legible so countries bother about taxing such things less.