Yeah, none of this is true. There is federal and state income taxes with 7(?) states not having income taxes. 3(?) states do not have sales taxes. My states sales tax is 2%, but the locality has a 6% tax, so total sales tax is 8% and is higher on thinks like alcohol.
Filing your taxes is free, but depending on the financial moves you make (selling stocks, rolling over a 401k, etc) you may need to set aside money throughout the year to pay the bill.
In most non-tech jobs you will pay hundreds per month for health/dental/vision/life/etc insurance. Among of required insurances, home/renters/car/etc can be a couple hundred per month.
Agreed on cars - in major cities you may not need them, but they are required everywhere else.
I don’t know anything about net differences so you are probably correctly that earning more in the US is still worth it, but I don’t think your characterization is accurate.
GP was comparing to European Union by stating sales tax in the US "generally ends up being about 18-20%, which is in-line with VAT in most Euro countries"
Most countries in the EU have 20%+ VAT indeed [0], however the average combined sales tax in the US is 7% [1] - a third of that.
> but depending on the financial moves you make (selling stocks, rolling over a 401k, etc) you may need to set aside money throughout the year to pay the bill.
isn't this true everywhere in the world? That taxable income from something like selling stocks has to be paid, and money may need to be set aside for it?
Filing your taxes is free, but depending on the financial moves you make (selling stocks, rolling over a 401k, etc) you may need to set aside money throughout the year to pay the bill.
In most non-tech jobs you will pay hundreds per month for health/dental/vision/life/etc insurance. Among of required insurances, home/renters/car/etc can be a couple hundred per month.
Agreed on cars - in major cities you may not need them, but they are required everywhere else.
I don’t know anything about net differences so you are probably correctly that earning more in the US is still worth it, but I don’t think your characterization is accurate.