That’s what I was thinking. My (joint) total income (not taxable income) was over $77k and using the formula “tax withholding - refund” I only paid $3,150 in taxes. I don’t know how much I’d have to be making to owe over $20k.
Edited to add: If my answer was based on tax liability before credits, it would be $5900.
Federal taxes for you are not much over 4% of your income. That is extremely low - I assume that isn’t a lot of regular taxable type income.
We pay about 20% of our taxable income (less if you use the adjusted gross) to the federal government. This puts us way into the $20k+ category.
Looking at the tax table from the 1040EZ form, a single person with a taxable income of $93,850 to $93,900 would owe $20,005 in federal income tax. Since the standard deduction is $9,350 for a single, that puts total income up to $103,200.
ETA: This is, obviously, assuming just the standard deduction. It clearly can get a lot more complicated as you factor in other deductions.
ETA^2: As an example, I made less than you did but payed more in FIT.
[quote=“Driver8, post:22, topic:539938”]
Federal taxes for you are not much over 4% of your income. That is extremely low - I assume that isn’t a lot of regular taxable type income.
…/QUOTE]
well, his (her?) user name is “Skammer” so maybe that’s an explanation 
(JUST KIDDING - NO WRONGDOING SUGGESTED!!).
Actually with joint income being 77K, that suggests at the least, 2 people, so you kill 7K off the income right there with personal deductions, then let’s assume 15K worth of mortgage deductions, that’s down to 55K taxable… let’s say there are 2 kids as well and that’s another 7K of personal deductions so we’re down to 48K in income…
The rates are:
So the total tax shown does sound too low, but there are obviously a lot of facts we’re not privy to.
I did have about $32k in deductions and another $3k or so in credits. (Standard deduction for married couple; mortage interest; property tax; state tax; charitable donations; etc.)
If you are a two income married couple it doesn’t take long to get to $20k in federal income taxes.
Interest and capital gains do not fall under the exclusion and since we do not always have bona-fide residence somewhere (including the US) because we move countries every 90 days or so, we don’t always qualify for the full exclusion. It is odd that time on a ship at sea counts as time spent in the USA… since one is not in any country.
I am my own employer and yes, I have a W2 (and the IRS has a copy). I am counting Federal tax, social security, medicare, capital gains etc… eg everything that I send to Washington.
$7k-ish in FIT. I’m a single renter. My largest deductions were for alimony and grad school.
Ah, that does bump it up, then. Since we’re specifically talking about federal *income tax *in this thread.
Still holding out with almost a third of U.S.-taxable respondants in the $20k or more category. Looks like the “SDMB people mostly feel N about issue M because they don’t pay taxes” isn’t holding up very well, assuming these numbers are a genuinely accurate reflection of our demographics.
I never realized until reading this thread how comparatively little I pay in taxes. You guys paying $20k should get more kids or a mortgage or something. 
I’d say that’s quite an assumption.
Also, you don’t have an option for people that pay negative taxes (ie, they get a refund each year of more than they pay because of refundable credits, such as the earned income credit).
Or make less money - but that sort of sucks.
I’m now all tempted to ask my boyfriend exactly what his income is, 'cause I’m quite sure that if we were to be married right this second, our taxes would bust the $20k mark.
1.) Of course it’s “quite an assumption”–it disagrees with what you’ve stated. :rolleyes:
2.) For the purposes of this poll, it doesn’t matter if someone is paying “negative taxes,” since they’ll just select the zero option. Once someone is under that threshold, it doesn’t really matter how far under it they are, just as it doesn’t matter how far past $20k someone is.
We pay enough taxes that we have to reduce the number of deductions we take, lest we hit the alternative-minimum tax threshold and corresponding extra taxes.
All I meant was that a poll of self-selected participants says something only about the participants and not about any larger group.
Understood, just pointing it out.
Meh. I end up with the same poll answer.
If I do it that way, I move up a notch.
I’ve got four kids, am guardian to another one, have a regular mortgage and a line-of-credit mortgage, and my tax liability was $15 k.
That’s what skammer said! 