LogGrad98
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Wrong, it means the gubmint taking all my money.A lot of people really misunderstand tax brackets.
I'm not going to use the actual numbers here, just big round numbers.
If $20,000 is exempt from taxes, it's exempt. If you earn $20,001 then you pay the above 20k taxes on $1. If you earn $1,000,000 your first $20,000 is exempt from taxes, you pay taxes on the next $980,000.
If the next bracket up after you pass 20k is 50K and you earn $55,000 then you pay no taxes on your first 20k, then the 20k-50K rate on that $30,000 and you pay the $50,000+ rate on that last $5,000.
Earning an extra dollar never costs you more than a dollar, unless it disqualifies you from stuff like an earned income tax credit or child tax credit. But as far as your tax bracket goes, if you make millions of dollars than you are in all the brackets, not just the highest one.
Make sense?