How to Figure Paycheck Taxes

There's nothing worse than taking a look at your paycheck taxes and realizing how much money you worked so hard for but gave to Uncle Sam. You'll be shocked to see how much money you have to give up, but you better get used to it because it only gets worse.

Instructions

1. For a general rule of thumb, employees are said to earn "50% money." In other words, about half of your income is given up with paycheck taxes. It's never really that much, but that's an easy way to figure out how much you'll bring home.

2. To figure out exactly how much your paycheck taxes will be, you'll need to know your income level. The more you make, the higher the percentage of money will go to taxes.

3. When you compute your paycheck taxes, you'll want to take in to consideration your state and federal taxes, as well as Social Security and Medicare.

4. For singles, the percent you pay in federal taxes is as follows for 2009:

   - up to $8,350 = 10%
   - $8,351 - $33,950 = 15%
   - $33,951 - $82,250 = 25%
   - $82,250 - $171,550 = 28%
   - $171,550 - 372,950 = 33%
   - $372,950 - up = 35%

   This is only federal taxes. You still have state paycheck taxes on top of this, but federal taxes are the biggest tax expense.