It's not even February and I've already filled out my taxes. I try to get things done promptly. I often show up 15 minutes early to dates and meetings; 30 minutes early to work and so forth. Sometimes being this early gives me a chance to really think about what I'm doing, as opposed to just going through the motions. Taxes have always had a bit of befuddlement to me, and there was something I noticed this year which really got me thinking.
Most tax books break down your taxes so that you can easily find how much you owe (ie, if you make $15,045 after deductions, you find the $15,000 column and then the $15,000-$15,050 row and enter that number). New York State does things a little differently: they make you do some math (if you make $15,045, you pay an amount for the $15,000 than a percentage of the $45). The thing about this is that identifying the top tax bracket is pretty easy.
For New York State, do you know what the top burden is? A very modest 6.85%. This sounds fair enough. However, do you know what you have to make in order to be taxed at this high rate? $20,000 (if you are single)! Yep. That's it. Congratulations, rich people, you are now taxed at basically the same rate as poor people.
To get to that $20K, you need to pull in a less-than-average NYC salary. It seems skewed to me that probably about half of New Yorkers are in the HIGHEST tax bracket. (I did some potential bad math to estimate these numbers, but it was the best I could do with the information I could find.) Shouldn't the highest bracket be reserved for the ones who can truly pay it? Something smells funny in Old New Amsterdam.