Poll: What tax bracket are you?

[Mango1956]

If there is a recent poll, then never mind, but I think it would be interesting to see the range of brackets on this forum. Brackets drive investing style, where to live, etc.

 

[Animorph]

Pretty much whatever I want it to be! But in 2014 I ran it up to a marginal rate of 28.8%, which was the 25% bracket plus the 3.8% ACA investment tax. I entered 28% in the poll, though 25% might be the better answer.

 

[martyb]

15% federal / 2% state of Louisiana

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[2017ish]

nominally 39.6. Still both working....

 

[audreyh1]

Unfortunately I am in the AMT tax bracket - 26%.

 

[Fermion]

2014, 33% plus some 3.8% ACA on investments (damn selling that website I paid $20 for $5000)

2015 probably 10%

2016+ likely 0% or lower

 

[shotgunner]

Your poll does not reflect the change to the tax code by the ACA so I can't vote as no category fits. My federal income taxes for 2014 were 0, actually less than 0 as I got a refundable tax credit for $1800.

 

[Ronstar]

15% in 2014
shooting for 10% in 2015

 

[pb4uski]

15% for me but it is a bit complicated... I did Roth conversion over the top of the 15% tax bracket and then did a recharacterization to reduce the Roth conversion so that my taxable income was exactly the top of the 15% tax bracket.

So I paid 15% on the last dollar of income (Roth conversion) but the marginal rate on my next dollar of income would have been 30% since going over the 15% tax bracket would cause LTCG that was previously taxed at 0% to be taxed at 15%.

 

[Theseus]

One of the things I really liking about the first full calendar year of retirement is finding that I have a great deal of control over our effective income tax rate. W@rking years it was was it was, and that wasn't pretty.

 

[Surewhitey]

Barely got into the 15%. Love controlling my tax destiny. Got the savers tax credit this year too.

 

[RE2Boys]

I marked 15% using the IRS definitions, but can engineer whatever I need it to be. Each Dec I review where I stand and may take some cap gains, maybe some losses, maybe convert money to Roth. I assume your asking about marginal tax bracket, not actual taxes paid as % of income

 

[RetireAge50]

25%

 

[LRDave]

25% nominal and 12% effective per my tax accountant......

 

[Car-Guy]

staying under 15% until RMD's kick-in at 70.5

 

[audreyh1]

Tax bracket doesn't matter nearly as much as the overall tax rate.

 

[38Chevy454]

Tax bracket doesn't matter nearly as much as the overall tax rate.

Agree, my effective federal rate was a little over 20% on total taxable income.

 

[Andre1969]

I'm in the 25% marginal bracket. As for overall bracket though, is it best to quote gross income or AGI? Last year I only came in around 10% federal, for AGI. Not sure about gross.

I didn't pay enough throughout the year, so the April 2015 tax bill was pretty gross

 

[Rustic23]

I'm in the 25% bracket, however, I only paid a little over 13% tax. So a lot more is taxed under 25% than at 25%.

 

[Kimo]

I do what ever I need to in order to stay in the 15% bracket....

 

[ABQ2015]

I am finally in the 28% tax bracket after years of avoiding it through my 401K, HSA, etc. Not retired and am single.

 

[Sue J]

We are in the 10% bracket. A small portion of DHs pension is non-taxable and then in 2014 we fully funded an HSA. We got a nice refund, first one in years, but it's all going to some medical expenses I had in Jan-Mar of 2015.

In one pocket and right out the other! The HSA is almost fully funded for 2015 and I'll reimburse us for this years expenses sometime down the road.

One of our sons found himself $950 into the 25% bracket for the first time. I suggested that he put $1000 in a traditional IRA and save himself $237 in taxes. He does Roth contributions all year but still had room so he took my suggestion.

 

[rodi]

I was 25% bracket for 2014 - but I was still working part of the year, got a lump sum payout of vacation, DH overshot his earned income and hosed his social security during his "failed first attempt at retirement), plus he inherited an IRA that wasn't big enough - so that got cashed out.

This year we'll be in the 10 or 15% bracket. Probably 15% because of rental income and some other stuff. We'll probably do Roth conversions up to the top of the bracket.

 

[LOL!]

Tax software tells me if I earned another $100 in interest in 2014 that I would pay another $33 in taxes, so I was in the 33% marginal income tax bracket. Tax software also tells me that my effective average tax rate is about 6%.

 

[Fermion]

Tax software tells me if I earned another $100 in interest in 2014 that I would pay another $33 in taxes, so I was in the 33% marginal income tax bracket. Tax software also tells me that my effective average tax rate is about 6%.

How in the world are you in the 33% bracket with an effective tax rate of only 6%

We are also in the 33% bracket + 3.8% ACA, paying $36.80 on every $100 (for 2014) and our effective average tax rate is almost 22%.