I'm not American, but every time I look at taxation levels, I come out with a number significantly smaller than that. I presume that America uses progressive taxation, so at what income level does personal income + payroll tax equate to 50% of gross?
> Under the SE Tax Act, self-employed people are responsible for the entire percentage of 15.3% (= 12.4% [Soc. Sec.] + 2.9% [Medicare]); however, the 15.3% multiplier is applied to 92.35% of the business's net earnings from self-employment, rather than 100% of the gross earnings; the difference, 7.65%, is half of the 15.3%, and makes the calculation fair in comparison to that of regular (non-self-employed) employees.
The rest of your figures aren't really what I'd consider personal income taxation, although they're definitely interesting. Also interesting is that married people in the US of A experience a tax advantage when filing jointly - not so our tax code, it's very theoretically pure.
It's not quite that simple. Filing jointly confers a tax advantage when the couple makes relatively little, but becomes neutral as they earn more, and is actually a tax disadvantage when the couple makes a significant amount.
That could be the catchphrase for the entire US tax code. :D
> The rest of your figures aren't really what I'd consider personal income taxation, although they're definitely interesting
I'd say that sales tax is personal, but property tax maybe not, since that isn't directly related to income. However, it still means that for every dollar that someone pays you to do work, you only get to spend 58 cents.
Does US sales tax apply to purchases by a business?
In short, if anyone is paying that much in taxes they are very much doing it wrong... and I kind of doubt people are.