Korean Job Discussion Forums

[itaewonguy]

The data show that an income of $32,879 or more puts you in the top half of taxpayers. Earning a bit more than twice that much -- $66,532 -- earns you a spot among the top 25 percent of all earners. You crack the elite top 10 percent if you earn more than $113,018.

And $410,096 buys top bragging rights: Earn that much or more and you're among the top 1 percent of all American earners.

top 1%!!!!?????

is this data correct????

[Kikomom]

Just be sure to send in your income tax returns so they have all the data.

[madoka]

Here's the text of the article for reference:

http://www.kiplinger.com/features/archives/how-your-income-stacks-up.html?topic_id=44

Even as the Great Recession ends, we know the economic wounds it inflicted will take years to heal. The national unemployment rate has breached 10%, and unemployment is higher than 12% in California and above 15% in Michigan. A new study from the Department of Agriculture found that nearly 50 million Americans struggled at some point in 2008 to get enough to eat.

More than 40 million Americans are officially living in poverty. And you might be surprised at how little income it takes to not be considered poor by the federal government. For 2008, the poverty threshold for a single person under age 65 was an income of $11,201, or less than $1,000 a month. For a family of four, the threshold was $21,834. For a family of six, $28,769.

With that perspective, you may wonder just how your income stacks up against that of your fellow citizens. New statistics from the IRS provide an answer. The numbers here come from an analysis of 2007 tax returns, the most recent ones that have been studied.

The data show that an income of $32,879 or more puts you in the top half of taxpayers. Earning a bit more than twice that much -- $66,532 -- earns you a spot among the top 25% of all earners. You crack the elite top 10% if you earn more than $113,018.

And $410,096 buys top bragging rights: Earn that much or more and you're among the top 1% of all American earners.

Kiplinger has developed an online calculator to quickly show you -- based on your personal adjusted gross income -- into which income category you fall and, as a bonus, what percentage of the nation�s tax burden is borne collectively by you and your fellow citizens who are in that income category. The following table shows the income categories and the percentage of income earned and tax burden paid by each category.

[madoka]

According to their chart, I think most NETs are probably in the top 50% once you factor in the free apartment.

[conrad2]

Also dont forget that those numbers are pretax, so you must subtract at least 30% to get take home pay.

[conrad2]

[Steelrails]

[madoka]

[nathanrutledge]

You also have to look at cost of living and standards of living. The cost of living in the United States is higher than here. That's why the standard of living here is comparable to the US, but the per capita GDP in Korea just cracked the 20k mark (fluctuating with the exchange rate, of course) but the US per capita is in the mid 30's.

Trying to compare teachers income in Korea to their place in the United States is apples to oranges. You have to factor in all the extra costs associated with both places, the costs that are not borne in both places, how much the won actually buys a person, the tax burden in the different countries, plus the tax burden certain nationals pay in their home countries as well. If you are a UK citizen, you have different tax obligations than a SA, who is different from a Kiwi, etc...

A more appropriate way to look would be what is your economic place in Korean society and where does that place you in the American context?

Now, you want to see your REAL place in society...

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html

This shows you that the top 1% of earners pay 40% of taxes, the top 5% pay 60% of taxes, and the top 50% pay 97.11% of taxes in the United States. At the same time, the bottom 50% earn 12.26% of income and they pay only 2.89% of the taxes.

My butt hurts...

[madoka]

[Unposter]

I assume this is just income and income tax; it does not include capital gains and capital gains taxes, is that right?

I would also assume many high earners earn more in capital gains than they do in income, would you agree?

I would think income + capital gains would give a better idea of where people stand in terms of wealth, but I really do not know.

I really don't know. I am just trying to understand what this information really means. Can anyoen shed any light on my questions?

[nathanrutledge]

From my link to the report:

For the first time this year, we are also presenting data on the top 0.1% of tax returns (the top 10 percent of the top 1 percent). This 10 percent of the returns in the top 1 percent amounts to only 141,000 tax returns but accounts for nearly 12 percent of the adjusted gross income earned and approximately 20 percent of the nation's federal individual income taxes. The average income for a tax return in this top 0.1 percent is $7.4 million, while the average amount of income tax paid is $1.6 million, indicating an average effective individual income tax rate of 21.5 percent. This very top income group actually has a lower average effective tax rate than the rest of the top 1 percent of returns because these extremely high-income returns are more likely to have income from capital gains and dividends, which are typically taxed at lower rates. (Note that in the case of capital gains and dividends, in most cases the income has already been taxed once by the corporate income tax, which is not included here.)

Yes, this is just income tax. High earners pay a lower effective tax rate because more of there money is in other devices which one does not pay INCOME tax on, but instead the lower capital gains taxes.

All my chart was showing was the disparity in income earned and taxes paid as a percentage of total tax revenue. It was more of a corollary to the main point, not in support of any idea other than taxes and ones place in society in general.

[conrad2]

[Kikomom]

[Jeonmunka]