Typical Taxes

It's income tax time again and NPR has piece on on the U.S. tax system.

"So you know if you take a family of four that earns about $75,000 a year - half the families in America earn more than that, half earn less, so that's the median - they pay about $4,500 or 6 percent of their income in income taxes. But most of them will pay as much or more in Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes that come directly out of their paychecks. "

Now I earn below the median income but I am a family of one so that helps. However, I did my taxes already and paid over twice as much as this family in income taxes despite a lower income. I can read the tax forms so I have a pretty good idea of why...married couples than a single person and children are big tax writeoffs as well (not sure what was all counted...childcare expenses can be deductible but those can change a great deal depending on the age of the children and if both spouses are working or one parent stays home full time). Assuming most of this income is from wages and not investments, I would probably pay less in payroll taxes since those are a straight percentage of wages (up to a certain cutoff, but this is well below the cutoff so all these wages are subject to payroll taxes).

I know that some married couples end up paying more in income taxes than if they were single but others pay less...the legendary marriage penalty is not universal.

Anyway, just thought I would put this out there and see if anyone had any other thoughts on our income tax system.