I'm somewhere between 40-50% considering State and Fed, not counting SS, medicare and state sales taxes. Throw in those and property taxes, vehicle registration, all the various fees and licenses and it is way above 50%. And then there is the cost of the CPA to prepare them. Taxes are by far the largest item in my "Cost of Living".
Everyone agrees that taxes are necessary to the running of a First World Country but it has gotten out of hand.
Other than true hardship cases I cannot understand how any reasonably healthy and intelligent individual can arrive at retirement age without enough money to live comfortably. For years now most companies have had tax deferred compensation plans. Even our small company provides those. Also available are Roth IRAs and personal IRAs.
I would wager that those who arrive at retirement depending upon SS without enough other investment income have made very poor choices over the span of their working career. Oh well, Wally World needs greeters and Costco needs food demonstrators...
