主题：【原创】续－揭开所谓美国工资和购买力真相的真相 -- 海外俗人
家园 Comments from a tax expert General comments, not against you. Just info for people on the forum.
BTW, I have not seen Chinese FAMILY with only 50k in household income (new immigrated students excluded). For friends around me, lowest income level I heard is around USD 90k.
50k household income life is hard in California.
1.State income tax varies from one place to the other. California state income tax is very high among US states. If you move to less socialistic states, such as Texas, Nevada, you pay 0 in state income tax. Pennsylvia is 3.07%. Missouri is around 4% as effective (topping 6% as marginal rate).
2.Depending on tax planning strategy, for people with income around 150k(based on a friend's example), their annual effective FEDERAL TAX RATE (after tax refund after April 15) is around 22%. Married with kids--then effective rate can be a bit lower with all kinds of tax credit.
3.Social security+medicare contribution (not an income tax per se) will eat away 7.65% (cap at around 100k of earned income in 2009 too).
In low state tax place--a Chinese family effective tax rate (including Fed/State/Social security deduction) will be around 30%. You will have 70% disposable income available.
In high state tax place--a typical middle-class Chinese american family effective tax rate will be around 36-40%. NYCity is the most crazy place.
Those percentages do NOT consider the impact of property tax and sales tax because these two depend on INDIVIDUAL CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR.
A few issues:
1.When income becomes even higher, if one falls into AMT category--sorry, income tax will be much higher.
2.Sales tax--it is a state-by-state tax when you purchase goods or service. In US, you can buy online FROM OUT-OF-STATE VENDORS to avoid it--free sales tax/free delivery.
3.Property tax--that's county/state-level tax. If you rent property, then you avoid it. If you own house/apartment, then you have to pay.
China.
1.Apparently it has no sales tax, but it charges VAT and final consumer pays all VAT along the value chain--therefore, you DO PAY TAX ON SALES, you just do not see it back in China.
So do not fool yourself by saying that US tax burden is heavier than China--give me a break, okay?
China follows Europe in 1994 when Zhu RJ reformed China's tax system. VAT is an UK-continental Europe design. Sales tax is an Anglo-American-Canadian choice.
2.Property tax--China will sooner or later adopt it to stablize local provincial gov. fiscal situation. Currently, provinces get 40%(SH, beijing) of fiscal revenue from land license income--so long as one is not an idiot, one should figure out this fiscal model is not sustainable in the long run.
If house price collapses, so will be provincial fiscal balance--for any gov. officials, you should hope China's housing prices will not fall.
Sooner or later, (real estate) property tax will come to china--therefore, middle-class family tax burden will race towards the Canadian/European level. Bye-bye, America.
Anyway, if you just rent, then it is not a problem.
3.China's public(excluding housing fund) pension and medicare contribution--every employee working in China has to contribute so-called 4 Jing. It is just the chinese version of US social security/medicare. China charges more percentage-wise because of the unfavorable demographical shift in the future.
4.Individual income tax--a joke. Very poorly designed system with many loopholes, with no consideration for family situation (many kids to support, old people to support, married with non-working spouse), with little tax credits, but WITH HIGH PROGRESSIVE RATEs and small brackets.
Keep in mind: US top marginal rate is 38%. China: you figure it out yourself by google.com. That's very indicative of a socialist system. BTW, all individual income tax is charged BY THE CENTRAL GOV. Provinces are PROHIBITED from charging province level income tax.
So China's provincial gov dilemma: it has no revenue from INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX REVENUE, it has only 25% from sales tax(VAT). In US/Canada, those accounted for 70-80% of local gov. fiscal income...
then it is natural that China's provincial gov. will try all their best to maximize land sales income(or actually land license income). And charge all kinds of FEES.
It is also natural that property tax will come to China sooner or later... Capital will flee to avoid tax, labor is slow to move around, BUT REAL ESTATE is sitting duck waiting to be taxed---of course gov. will target real estate property first.
Final comment: if you want to know the true level of tax burden in one economy, just collect the total tax revenue number from China'govs and then divide it by China GDP.
Any tax burden on corporation will finally pass over to consumers.
that ratio will be very funny if you compare between China and US. China is actually closer to socialist Europe.
It is weird that chinese even compare China to US.
While, BTW, ever after we put a blah-blah talk-show man called Obama in the oval office, US is also running towards the European spectrum. So maybe in the future, Europe/US/China will be "neighbors" in terms of overall tax burden.
家园 好文，一点儿补充和更正 个人所得税(IIT)是地方和中央共享税种，2003年开始，中央60%；地方40%，由地方税务局负责征收。IIT是目前占地方税的比重超过40%，是地方第二大税源。
增值税(VAT)收入占中国全部税收的60％以上，是最大的税种。由国家税务局负责征收，75％归中央财政收入，25％归地方收入。而进口环节的增值税由海关负责征收，全部为中央财政收入。
“四险一金”，指养老、医疗、失业、公司保险和住房公积金，现在对女职工推广生育保险，加起来叫做“五险一金”，比例如下(基数是雇员的名义税前月薪)：
养老保险：雇主20%，雇员8%，合计28%
医疗保险：雇主8%，雇员2%，合计10%
失业保险：雇主1%，雇员0.2%，合计1.2%
工伤保险：按行业不同，雇主0.5%~2%，雇员0
四险总比例超过名义税前薪水的40%，白领一般将其视为税负。因为它们没什么用。合计28%的养老保险与美国的401K不同，只有其中11%进入个人养老金账户，其余17%是给社会做贡献，当然你也不能选投资组合。医疗保险是大病(10万元以上)不管，日常小病(1千元以下)也不管，一般外企在国内都额外给员工买商业医疗保险来弥补。至于失业救济金实际上你真的失业了也很难领到，这方面的情况可以baidu。
住房公积金是比较有意思的东西。缴存上限10%，即雇主出10%，雇员出10%，共20%存入住房公积金管理中心账户，只有在购买或大修住房时凭合同方可支取。有些比较富裕的省份例如北京，只要你有过一次购房合同，比如金额50万，那么你就可以累计支取50万的公积金。大多数穷一些的省份，只能支取你贷款的部分，例如购房金额50万，其中贷款30万，那就只能累计支取30万，没有贷款就不允许支取。公积金中心也是个人住房贷款市场上主要的放贷者之一，贷款利率低于商业银行贷款利率。公积金的好处是免税，不好的地方是不买房子就拿不到钱。
全部四险一金缴存基数有个上限，即上年度当地平均工资的三倍，超出这个上限的部分不缴，例如北京这个上限目前大概是月薪1万元，如果你的月薪是10万元，也只需要按1万元的基数缴纳。因此对高级白领来说这些东西都没啥意义，IIT才是大头。
家园 thanks. 人所得税(IIT)是地方和中央共享税种，2003年开始，中央60%；地方40%
sorry, I still live in the old history. Shame on me.
In 1994, it was a central gov. tax.
家园 四险一金的确是个鸡肋的东西 自己是真金白银的交出去了,可实际能摊到自己头上用的东西的确乏善可陈.就拿上海的情况来说,lbx交上去的社保不就是被凿了个大窟窿么,到现在还在加大力度的从下面收来补窟窿..
医保对于普遍有补充商业医疗的外企员工来说可能意义不大,但是对没有这个的人来说,还是颇有用处的.
对比其他形同鸡肋的东西,公积金毫无疑问是最有用的,所以有段时间,很多非沪籍的外企员工宁愿改选择缴纳一种所谓"外来员工综合险",公司按照最低基数给员工缴纳,一共每个月就200,员工个人自己一毛钱不用交,但是,这样做的好处是有资格在上海缴纳住房公积金,而且公司有补充公积金的话一样缴纳.
这样下来最有用的公积金得以保留,其他部分一概全免,一个月可以少缴1000多大洋..
然而好景不长,很快,上海就打着关心非沪籍员工的旗帜,规定这些员工也必须纳入上海的四险一金缴纳体系,如同skywalkerJ表述的那个比例那样..普通人难得一见的"省钱"法宝就此作废..
另外再说一句,多缴纳这些四险一金还有一个很小的好处,就是这些占税前工资收入的40%的东西是免税的,相当于变相的降低纳税薪资.
家园 50k for household is difficult everywhere. it is almost impossible in CA.
most chinese people here probably in 150k to 250k range, anywhere less than 100k, life is tough.
家园 Thanks for the comments. One note: "In US, you can buy online FROM OUT-OF-STATE VENDORS to avoid it--free sales tax/free delivery."
For business buyer, you still have to accrue the sales tax and pay to the State where it located. There is now a champaign to close the loophole for individuals buying online without paying taxes so I think that benefits will be gone soon.
The ugliest thing in US system is that the hard working low-skill people make almost nothing better than those who do nothing but rely on wellfare for a living. This is the most unfair part of the US system. It just makes more people to stop working and join in the wllfare system and it will finally ruin the whole country. No politican dare to challenge the system and it will burned for sure in the future.
Califormia state income tax at 9.3% for income over 47K. Wow, that sucks.
家园 come on The notion that low-skill people will simply quit working and collecting welfare is just a smoke screen. If enough people drop off work force, the minimum wage should increase which is not happening. The most unfair thing are below poverty level minimum wage and the shell game played at Wall street. In fact, US and Europe are not as different as people perceive.
- 复 come on
家园 You just said what I meant. The low minimum wage is the root cause that makes people feel no difference between working and not working. I am not talking about the notion, it's been a reality long time ago when local uneducated, low skill people stopping work and those jobs are now done by Hispanic immigrants. A fair society should only protect young, senior and truely diabled people and make all other lazy people living miserably and push them to work. I tried to be not too racial but hope you know what I mean.