alt Hacker NewsThis doesn't seem quite right. Even using SmartAsset's income tax calculator for a city in California, I'm getting around a 45%+ tax rate for someone making one million a year of income.
It's actually pretty easy to pay an 80%+ tax rate in California if you consider taxes that your employer pays, sales tax (11%+ in some areas), local assessments, capital gains tax, etc.
In cali capital gains are part of income.
Taxes paid by your employer aren't taxes you pay.
I'm quite sure your calculator is very basic and stops at 401ks and little more, there's stuff like mortgage interest, being married with kids, backdoor roth, etc.
But yeah, wouldn't change the number you said dramatically, maybe it would lower it to 45%ish on a 2M income.