Holy cow! Have taxes just increased on the lower class???

[Spacejet]

I went to the irs.gov withholding calculator earlier in order to get a better idea of what to put on my W4 this year.

Just for the hell of it, I decided to see how much tax a person making minimum wage (5.15/hr) working 40 hours a week for 12 months would be taxed. So I said around $9888 earned in an entire year. I expected it to be in the range of $0-2 owed.

The IRS says such a person is to pay $488! WTF??? I don't even know if that includes FICA/MED but I have a feeling it doesn't.

Has this just changed this year? This is unbelieveable. A person making a little over $800 a month is expected to pay $488 in taxes on top of everything else? Surely the withholding calculator is screwed up??? I can't imagine a person making that little being taxed a single penny.

Anyone know exactly what hand the republicans had in this? Was it like this in 2000?

[davidwparker]

1. I had my taxes done today and I get back half of what

I used to before * was selected to be president.

[stepnw1f]

2. The Working Class Pays for Everything

never forget that

[Sawber]

3. Just quickly looking at it

It looks like (the worst case - single person, not dependents, no other deductions) would have a taxable income of $1938 (9888-7950).

That has a tax of $194. If you are over 25, you would qualify for an EIC of $124, leaving a tax of $70.

[FloridaPat]

4. Doesn't include FICA. However, take $3500 off for deductions.

Depends on if there are deductions or not. I think the new single deduction is $3500. Hard to keep track. If married it's more.