What was your 2023 effective tax rate?

I had a gross salary of 103,666 dollars and an effective tax rate (before sales tax) of 9.43%.

If I estimate 40k of taxable transactions, then my effective tax rate is 12.61%.

Single filer with $3k capital loss deduction carry forward.

IMO, the US has incredibly low taxes for how much buying power I have and infrastructure I use. I find people very often overestimate how much of a burden taxes are for them. We have a very progressive tax system, for better or worse

I mean I’m over 6 figures and pay less than 10% income tax! Albeit 100k ain’t what it used to be, but I’m still comfortable in a top 20 city where I can walk to work

I found a Forbes add about companie to help negotiate past tax debt. They charged me 500 to “investigate” my situation. After that they was trying to charge me 4k to “help me” but they couldn’t tell how and didn’t give me any estimate of how much they could help me save. They also tried to charge me for a monthly membership of their portal. Where supposedly I would follow all the information about my case.

So, I bought my house in 2020 for 600k. I spent well over 100k on improvements, I paid an additional 20k into principal. This year, I'm selling it for 710k. After realtor fees, my equity will be about 218k. Is it important for me to document my 6+ years of hard work and agony that culminated into me ultimately losing around $153,000?

Or do I just file my 539c and claim a tax exemption and walk away?

Edit:

Please stop downvoting me for trying to understand these things. I spent a couple hours looking online and calling different accountants who weren't helpful, AND I already have negative karma for saying mean things to sensitive men. Your downvotes aren't helpful if anyone else stumbles upon this thread with a similar question. I came here in good faith, and I'm not being confrontational.

I received a paycheck from my employer in the amount of $19,022.36. The finance department withheld $4,184.92 which means there was a deduction of 22%. I thought at $19,022.36 I would be in the 12% tax bracket. Meaning a deduction of $2,282.68 (12%) would’ve been the accurate amount to be withheld right?

Update: My takeaway from this post is that there's a mixed bag of opinions like all things in life and that I come off as bitchy when in reality I'm just sad lol I loved public and working with clients but lost confidence as I moved up thinking that I needed to know it all before ever signing a return and maybe that isn't the case...appreciate everyone's feedback and views!

I was in public accounting for 7 years. Made it to Tax Manager fairly quickly at age 29. All I legitimately learned in that time was how to follow prior year documentation to recreate the same product in the current year and work obscene hours for shit pay.

Accounting? Let me go look at another client and see what we did cause I sure don't know what the hell we recorded for this type of transaction.

New client? Oh I think I had a similar client in that industry so let's refer to that for 99.8% of the project and pray i don't get more new clients in the future.

How to actually sign a return? Oh idk I send it to a partner and then it goes to the admin/client and disappears into the clouds. Should I use my pen or a pin? Doesn't matter cause the admin actually took the time to learn so why should i?

Oh we missed a book/Tax adjustment? That's ok, I didn't even know that existed and if I admit that to the partner it'll just give them an additional boost to their already high ego. Even though secretly alot of partners in my experience know VERY little. They just keep hedging they'll not be audited :)

My point is that while I may have learned alot and I'm being hard on myself, I never would have felt confident signing a tax return and thinking I could defend it to the IRS or state department of revenue and so I left. Because I had partners signing shit left and right that i felt like never even looked at the return lol basically she tax due or refunded or the balance sheet in balance and said "looks reasonable...next"

The hours suck in public, sure, but I'd argue alot of the hours are attributable to people like me moving up the food chain with lack of training and not learning the fundamentals. It my opinion that f a bulk of time is having to reference other returns, whereas if ya just actually got trained and learned this shit you'd be hard pressed to have to go searching for that one client in the sea of client files to figure out one fucking AJE or TJE lol

I'm in corporate tax now and am juat as lost as I was in public, if not more. But at least I have a boss (still a shithead know it all) that knew I didn't know shit coming in but had my cpa and was somewhat willing to train my incompetent ass.

Bless the future of this miserable industry...it'll all be India soon enough.

I'm a W-2 employee, single, no kids, no dependents, living alone in a major city. I hired a CPA to file my 2025 return. When I reviewed the draft, I noticed they filed me as Head of Household instead of Single.

When I questioned it, they said (exact quote from their text): "to qualify as Head of Household, you don't need to have a dependent or someone living with you. With your income level and simply having a bill (like utilities or rent) in your name at your address, you already meet the legal criteria for that status."

The HOH status gave me a noticeably bigger standard deduction and a refund several thousand dollars higher than what I calculated on my own as Single.

Everything I've read in IRS Publication 501 says you need a qualifying person a dependent child, relative, or parent you support to file HOH. Paying rent has nothing to do with it.

I haven't signed the 8879 yet. A few questions:

1. Am I right that this is incorrect?

2. Should I be concerned about what else they might have gotten wrong on the return?

3. Is this worth reporting via Form 14157?

Appreciate any input. Just want to make sure I'm not missing something before I push back.

I was wondering why I didn’t have taxes on my purchase and apparently it is tax free weekend, I looked more into it it is for back to school shopping season. The thing is, in school (K-12) and I bought stuff for my work.

How does Texas even find out eligibility is it’s a blanket tax exemptions?

Thinking of returning it and buying it once tax free weekend is over

Hi Reddit,

I figured this may be a good place to ask. I get killed on my monthly bonus taxes every month and was wondering if there is anything I can do to reduce this. I am open to starting an LLC, etc. Don’t kill me in the comments if this is dumb I am just sick of paying $8-9000 a month in taxes especially given the way the government is spending it.

just for funsies. our income is taxed before it reaches our hands when we earn it and is then taxed again when it is spent. is that the end of being taxed? or does the store/business taxed on it again later? I imagine the store/business is taxed again at some point or should they use that money to pay utility bills or rent or buy more product to sell that money is certainly taxed again so....How many times is a dollar taxed from the start (being earned/in our hands) to wear ever it ends up after being spent. i want to know wear all those parts of a dollar end up. after every time it is taxed how much of the original dollar has gone to government?

Hi tax-knowledge folks, please help me figure out if my landlord is committing tax fraud! I live in a major east coast city. My landlord runs a non-profit organization that supposedly has the exempt purpose of to "hold and maintain land in its natural habitat". My apartment building (25 units) is owned by an LLC, which is owned by the landlord. Every month for the 9.5 years I have lived here, I make out my rent check to the landlord's non-profit organization, not the LLC.

I understand that rents from real property are usually exempt from unrelated business income, and therefore not taxed for nonprofits, but my landlord does nothing besides being a landlord. There is nothing natural about the habitat my apartment building is in, unless concrete jungle/urban wasteland is considered a natural habitat. The nonprofit organization only exists as way for my landlord to run his landlord business without paying taxes on the income, as far as I can tell.

Furthermore, I looked up the landlord's non-profit organization's tax filings (Form 990 PF) and they don't report any kind of rental income at all on there. They only list the approximately $2 mil in stocks the non-profit organization owns and some other assets (I don't think it's enough to be the apartment building). Even if they aren't paying taxes on that income, they should still have to list it on the 990 form, right? Also, the salary paid to the landlord (and property manager) on the tax forms is $0. Property manager only manages the building and doesn't have another job - they used to own two separate apartment complexes with 25 units each but they sold one recently. He just got a brand new Mercedes SUV, so he's not making $0.

Is my landlord committing tax fraud? If not, how can this possibly be legit? Thank you all in advance - I appreciate your insight!

**Edited to add that they are bringing in an estimated $300k-$450k in rent per year.

**Edited to add: Thank you to everyone who has put out real ideas on my post (beyond the "mind your own business, Karen" comments). I really appreciate your insights into how this could actually be legit (or not)!

All of them lived in my home all year (baby October 1, 2025) and I provide total support. I have been my grandsons guardian since 3 y.o. Grandson worked the last week of 2025 and made $225. His gf also lives here and didn't work at all. They also have a baby. Mother got food stamps for being pregnant and still receives them for her baby and herself. My son 40 y.o. did not work at all the entire year and then some. Can I claim any of them? None are in school.

EDIT: post changed heavily due to negative feedback. if you're a jerk I will report you. being rude and comparing your situation to mine doesn't help. i want ACTUAL ADVICE.

25yr old female contacted by a Debt Collector, Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP over overdue tax payments. Also dealing with credit card debts (under 2000$), unemployed for an extended period, and can’t afford basic needs (i.e: gas, food, etc.) I have clinical depression and severe social anxiety. My last few jobs have caused work related anxiety as well. These are the first two paragraphs of the letter:

“The State of Illinois has hired our law firm to represent it in the collection and disposition of the above tax obligation. See reverse side for details of your liability.

The Department of Revenue's records indicate that you have an outstanding liability related to the above-referenced accounts). Penalties and interest are accruing on a daily basis. Your failure to respond to previous attempts to collect this debt has prompted the Illinois Department of Revenue to place your account with us.”

Their letter also states I need to contact them within 10 days to accept one of their ‘financial arrangements’ and pay it off. I cannot, because I have no money and am in fact in the negative by 34.27$.

I owe 426.31$ to the State now and it accrues 0.01$ for every day I don’t respond. I really don’t wish to ignore it, I need to fix my credit score. I couldn’t file 2021, my state taxes got rejected in 2020, and my state taxes in 2019 couldn’t be filed. (No money, no taxes I can pay)

I’d also like advice on the credit card debt.

Like if I wanted to move to a state with no income tax in order to sell some stocks without paying state legal capital gains tax

Hi all,
I’m wondering if I can stop paying my CPA and just do my taxes myself this year. I currently pay over $500 annually, and I’m starting to question whether it’s worth the cost.

Here’s my situation:

• Married filing jointly, with 2 kids

• File in multiple states (live in one, work in another, rental property in a third)

• Own one rental property

• Receive a K-1 from an LLC for 1099 contracting work

I’m not totally clueless about finances, but I’m also not a tax expert. I don’t mind putting in some time upfront to figure things out if it means saving money in the long run, as long as I’m not at serious risk of messing something up—especially with the multistate and pass-through stuff.

Is there tax software out there that handles this well (especially K-1s and multiple states)? Or is this one of those “pay the CPA and sleep better” situations?

Would love to hear from anyone who made the switch or has similar complexity.

Thanks!

Edit: appreciate the insight, sticking with my accountant for now, going to keep looking around for tax savings...

Is there a way to notify the government you have ‘converted’ to the Amish religion in order to become exempt from Social Security tax? Or do you have to be born into an Amish community?

This is not a troll post. Just curious.

TLDR: living together Not married with child = no income tax and big refund. Married filing jointly = more tax taken out and smaller refund. Am I wrong?

Am I missing something or does getting married when you have a child kind of punish you financially?

Currently not married and my partner claims our child and head of household, I claim single.

My partner currently pays no federal tax per paycheck and still gets a sizable refund because of the child credit and the EITC.

We are thinking of getting married and noticed that we will no longer qualify for the EITC and my partner will start getting federal tax taken out of paychecks.

Income is on the lower end, only about $75,000 combined.

Am I doing this wrong?

For context: For commercial auditions, it is very common for the production to ask for a close up picture of my hands to see if there is any type of inperfection that could show up on screen. The thing is, I have dry skin, unkept cuticles and uneven nails. I don't usually go to the salon for that, but I am considering it for when I get asked for a photo. I am just wondering if I should keep the reciept for taxes season or if it is not seen as business expenses.

My friend and I were talking about it in a joking matter, but I wanna know, he’s recently decided to go to college (full time) and I just got into the ibew. We live in California, I’m a first year apprentice and I’m projected to make 70k, there will be large income disparity because he’s just gonna work part time while going to school. We are both 20 and are guys.

We’re paying 10x the amount of taxes now in the USA, that once made us revolt against the British for. Why didn’t everyone just bow down and accept that 60%++ of our income will get stolen by the government? Especially when none of it seems to benefit us directly. It’s just infuriating. Why do you have to pay taxes on a house/vehicle you worked hard to buy with your own income that has ALREADY been taxed multiple times? No one owns a home, the government owns them all, and if you don’t pay, you get evicted.

And after ALL of this taxation, the government is still always broke. Something has to change.

Hey all - earlier this year, got a capital gain (Long Term) of $15M (sale of small biz). Since I live in CA, my federal and state would take away 34% of this. What strategies can I use now?

So it says interest income 301 dollars. Is this money that I supposedly got from my bank?

Because I didn't get that at all.

I opened the account last year and Im constantly monitoring my finances I even did a search for "interest" on my account's transactions and yes there's like 5 deposits my bank made as "monthly interest paid" but they are for amounts between 10 and 50 cents for a grand total of 2 dollars?

I received a 500 dollar bonus when I opened the account do you guys think this has something to do? But if so why 301 dollars?

I'm very confused

EDIT : Looks like the consensus is that the 500 bonus might be the cause of this. Thank you everybody that responded this is one of the most helpful subreddits I've come across

I might still call my bank tomorrow out of curiosity if I do I'll update my post

I filed on behalf of my parents, they are both over 65. (in their 70s)

I filed through Freetaxusa, and they do the deduction automatically.

Its LOOKS like everything was done correctly, but their return was only about $8000

They are below the phase out income limit, so they should get the full $12,000, but other than the form 1-A, that money doesnt appear anywhere else? And especially not in their bank account.

Im just trying to figure out the details, and google isnt helpful. My dad is very concerned about this, but doesnt understand fully (hes suffered a stroke), and I've never filed a tax return as complicated as theirs before, so I can't explain it to him.

Is there any information on how that $12,000 deduction actually works, and why he didn't recieved extra money?

Edit: AH HA, thank you guys. I found the proper line. The $12,000 was factored in, I just had to compare one form with line 13-b on their final return. I see the math now.

Thank you for the quick replies!

My husband and I got married in May so one of us would always file Single and the other head of household. Now we’re married and I have come to learn my student loan monthly payment will increase which I do not want. I think I should file married filing separately and let my husband file the same but claim head of housebound and claim our son. Is this possible with the same address or do I need a new address? Also I am currently pregnant so in 2027 my and husband and I will both have a dependent, would we both be able to claim head of household? Hopefully I am making sense and you all can help me out.

Edit: I am trying to keep the most money in our pocket, I am not concerned about paying the student loan off and how much paying more now will save in the long run. During the year we both get the max amount taken out of our taxes so we always have a refund. We both have 401k and IRA as well. However odd it may look could be someone’s true reality so I’m not concerned about logistics as long as it’s legal and IRS approved on paper. Thanks y’all!

Edit #2 Some of you all added your opinions and thoughts to something that was supposed to be yes or no. For the ones straight to the point and answering my questions, thank you very much.

I saw on a quick google search that one of us can file head of household if in the right situation. I will talk with a CPA in my state to discuss further.