Marc_ely

So we've been over to Orange County and had a good look at everything from areas, homes, schools, shopping, furniture etc. I have a reasonable idea about the price of a lot of things.
Overall my cost of living in Orange County is about 20% more than near Ely in the UK.

So the amount of take-home pay I would receive is really important.

My future potential employer has calculated this but they haven't taken into account child dependancy, mortgage interest etc.

Can anyone recommend an online tax calculator that you can include ALL the elements to work out a proper take-home pay?
All the calculators I've tried (turbotax, paycheckcity etc) give different answers so either I am setting them up wrong or it's not easy to calculate?

Can anyone verify if this is the right way to calculate it?

+ GROSS Pay
- Medical/Dental/Vision for family
- 401k contributions
- mortgage interest
- state/local taxes
- deductions for dependants ($3800 per child?)
= Federal taxable income?

What about Social Security and Medicare taxes? Do they add in pre-federal tax or post tax?

Thanks
Marc

Michael

If you have children and both of you work, you may be eligible for child care tax credits (credit against taxes and not a deduction against income). 401K contributions will not appear as part of your salary so subtract that before using any calculator. Your employer may also offer a health saving account which is an account that you contribute monthly for medical expenses during the year (also doesn't appear as part of your salary).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_savings_account

US taxes are complicated so you can only get a rough estimate. I use the following calculator since it is fairly simple to use.

http://www.dinkytown.net/java/Tax10402011.html

FICA taxes (social security and Medicare) are 7.65% on the first $113,700 of income before you calculate taxes.

Other deductions include property taxes, car registration fees, charity, and possibly more. Normally medical, vision, and dental premiums as well as co-pays aren't deductible since you have to meet a threshold before they are deductible. However look at the health savings plans (if your employer offers it) since you may be able to pay for deductibles and co-pays from the tax free health savings plans.

HartleyHare

Which visa are you going on? You may be exempt from Social Security taxes in the US, but would continue pay NI contributions in the UK (that's both you & your employer). There is information about this on the HMRC site. I will try to find the link for you as it takes a bit of digging...

Bink

It's very difficult to calculate it in the way you've laid out.
Things like mortgage interest and deductions for children generally get taken when you file your taxes so although you should get a refund check at that point in time, I wouldn't recommend including them to calculate your month-by-month take home pay although it will give you an accurate figure for the whole year.

Pulaski

I agree, you seem to be looking for a precise figure, which if you eventually get may be "precise", but not actually achieved in reality. In any case choices you make when you get here can make the number irrelevant.

No matter where you live, there are a wide variety of house prices and other options to choose from, so predicting the precise impact of mortgage interest when you don't know if you'll be paying $1,000/mth mortgage or $3,000/mth mortgage, or you may be renting for the first year, is IMHO, not only a waste of time but also may give you a false sense of security (and with no credit history you may not even be able to get a mortgage for several months, or longer).

Other choices on many other things including health insurance options, vehicles, commute distances, groceries, how often you eat out, whether you pay someone to mow your lawn, etc. will have as big, or bigger, impact on your monthly budget as whether some deductions included in your tax return.

Bink

I still deliberately overpay my taxes (although I'm reducing it year by year) as it's incredibly difficult to predict the affect all the things you'll do through the year will have on your tax return. Buying a car for example, you can knock off some of the sales tax, mortgage interest and property tax, some of that can be knocked off. You'd have to spend a LOT of time (and probably might as well become a CPA) to be able to figure it all out in advance and get it spot on.

Go with the basics, get an idea of how much withholding you'll have based on the IRS's sheet for calculating W4 deductions, use that as a guide and see how much money you have left. Count anything else as a bonus.

And completey agree with Pulaski about the other costs - it varies state by state but other costs you may not be used to may be:
- Increased utility bills (heating in winter, AC in summer)
- Lawn service
- Pest service
- Alarm service fee
- Higher car insurance premiums
- Fuel may be cheaper, but you'll probably end up driving a whole lot more

If you buy there also may be HOA fees, higher property tax than in the UK and much higher closing costs on buying/selling a house.

ian-mstm

Plan on taking home 65% of your salary. For some it's a bit more, for some it's a bit less... but it's a good ballpark figure!

Ian

Pulaski

Agreed, ... My refinement to the above approximation is you will take home roughly 70% of the first $100k and 60% of anything above that.

Alan17

For OC i work on the assumption of 65%, then take off whatever I'm paying myself in 401k contributions.

I think I may cry if I think about it too much. I thought taxes in the UK were bad.......

captainsensible

I used this:

http://www.adp.com/tools-and-resourc...alculator.aspx

Wasn't far off.