re: How’d those tax totals look on your last paystub

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Self-employment tax includes Medicare, so there is double counting there.

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After further review, my self-employment tax is actually 15.3% instead of the 14.45%. I'm only paying 22% on half of the earnings, then 24% on the other half, so 23% average. Then, to add insult to injury, the FedGov will eventually hit me with the GPO (government pension offset), so I'm basically making an involuntary contribution to social security at gunpoint. So, I'm paying 38.5% of my off-duty wages to the FedGov before sales taxes on non-food items are factored in. Assuming that I'm buying non-food items, the various layers of government are taking almost half. Explain to me like I'm 5 how the government taking almost half of my OT (46.75%) is a positive thing.