fad_shen

Dear All,

I am planning to move to the USA and would like to know how much tax I would be paying. I have a wife & 2 children and will be living in Illinios.

If I earn a gross income of "50000" and my pension+medical care are 5770, how much tax I would be paying?

Any web sites to help or online calculators?
I found one on paycheckcity.com, but I am not familiar with any of thier terms such as:

Federal Filing Status:
"Single" "Married" "Head of Household" "Supplemental"
# of Federal Allowances
Additional Fed. Withholding

State and Local Information for Illinois
Allowances
Additional Allowances
Additional State W/H

Voluntary Deduction Section
Ded. #1 Exempt from:
Federal FICA State Local


Any help much appreciated.

Fady Shenoda

gooner81

I don't know the complete ins and outs with regards to your pension, I am soon to be moving to the US with an Accounting and Finance Degree, but because its english i have looked a little bit into how america Tax works.

You have a non- taxed allowance like in the UK and then it goes 10%, 15%, 25% and 35% plus 6.75% for SS, you may also be liable to pay state tax depending where you are going to live, this is a good site to use to work out what you would pay etc http://www.hrblock.com/taxes/partner...pPartnerId=179

Duncan Roberts

It will depend on how much other income you have, what tax status you file (single, married, 1, 2, 3 dependents - only effects what is taken out of your pay) the area you live in may or may not have local taxes and how many deducables you have. It's a bit like asking how long is a piece of string.

strim

you'll pay a lot less than you do in the UK that's for sure!

You need to work out how many allowances to claim and this will determine how much tax you pay each pay check. then at the end of the year you will need to file a tax return at which point you calculate what you should have paid for the year -- and may have to pay additional taxes or you may get a refund if you paid too much during the year.

If your wife is not working and you are claiming 2 kids you will probably net out paying less than 10% on all your taxes for the year (federal, state, and social security).

you can probably figure out federal tax using this tax withholding calculator

http://www.irs.gov/app/cgi-bin/wh05.cgi/p5/en

The IRS site also has plenty of other info. You should also check out the tax site for your state. they may have some calculators as well.

immunise

Why does everyone say this, I pay shit loads more tax than I did in the UK...what do I get for it....nothing! Street lighting and police...nothing else!! I pay for trash, water, sewerage separately...

mandpete

Wage related taxes are less than the UK but local municipal taxes are horrendously expensive, at least they are in NJ. You pay so many dollars for each $100 that your property is worth. A quick random example - house worth $300,000, municipal tax $3.00 per $100 = $9,000 per year which is a lot more than you would pay in the UK. Obviously it depends where you live but in general municipal taxes are higher than the UK.

bionomique

To get a general idea of what tax might be, you can consult the 1040 form tax tables on the irs web site. http://www.irs.gov.

W/H = withholding tax
FICA = social security tax (FICA comabines Fed Social security and Fed Medicare)
Federal = Federal Income tax
State = State Income tax (if applicable)
Local - Municipal Income tax (if applicable)

Bob

not to mention medical insurance which you pay on the side...

immunise

Actually I can't complain about medical insurance as I work for a hospital so mine is $35 a month plus my wife works for Kaiser so we both get free coverage from them!

Income tax sucks though, we both file as 0 fed and 0 state and still end up paying at the end of the year!! cnuts!

Lottie

Nightmare, we were in the same situation. Our accountant told us to buy a house or have some kids

Also, can I ask if this is the first year that you filed...as you joined expats in Aug 04, thought you might have first moved over here in Aug 04? If you did, you may have been stung more than normal because you didn't meet the substansive presence rule...however, you can bypass this by opting for first year choice, I posted about it this time last year, I'll see if I can find the link!

Lottie

Link as promised!

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=242402

immunise

This year was our second year of filing...I found this site after a year of living here. I worry about buying a house, it's bad enough having to pay $3000 - $4000 a month for a mortgage (hey, it IS North California!) but there is no way we could afford the property taxes on top of that!

Lottie

There's only one other option then!!

Duncan Roberts

Do you file married claiming 0 or single caliming 0? If you calim married and owe at the end of the year try switching to single.

immunise

married and 0, I think it's time for a new W4 form!!