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Hey guys, I am about to begin as a full-time associate here in Chicago. I'm trying to make some sort of budget. I saw that someone posted the after-tax take-home pay for NYC; anyone privy to the same info for Chicago? The only addition to the tax factor would be assume maxing out a 401k.

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State income tax is basically 3% with some negligible deductions.

--LinkRemoved--

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All right, so here's what I got (paid twice per month; with the 401k taking out the max $16,500 per year--balanced over 24 pay periods; taking 2 state and federal allowances).

Your Pay Check Results
Semi-monthly Gross Pay: $6,666.67
Federal Withholding: $1,302.97
Social Security: $413.33
Medicare: $96.67
Illinois: $174.38
401k: $687.50

Net Pay: $3,991.82

Sounds good enough for me. If I screwed anything up, let me know.

John26 wrote:All right, so here's what I got (paid twice per month; with the 401k taking out the max $16,500 per year--balanced over 24 pay periods; taking 2 state and federal allowances).

Your Pay Check Results
Semi-monthly Gross Pay: $6,666.67
Federal Withholding: $1,302.97
Social Security: $413.33
Medicare: $96.67
Illinois: $174.38
401k: $687.50

Net Pay: $3,991.82

Sounds good enough for me. If I screwed anything up, let me know.

OMG.

John26 wrote:All right, so here's what I got (paid twice per month; with the 401k taking out the max $16,500 per year--balanced over 24 pay periods; taking 2 state and federal allowances).

Your Pay Check Results
Semi-monthly Gross Pay: $6,666.67
Federal Withholding: $1,302.97
Social Security: $413.33
Medicare: $96.67
Illinois: $174.38
401k: $687.50

Net Pay: $3,991.82

Sounds good enough for me. If I screwed anything up, let me know.

Don't forget you're pre-tax health insurance costs.

boolaw wrote:
OMG.

? Remember, that's x 24 and $16.5k was taken out (pre-Fed/State tax) for 401k. Add that back in and you've got another $10k or so per year.

Edit: what are typical health insurance costs? I have no idea about that.

in response to that paycheck calculator: tax breaks for married people are such fucking bullshit

mountaintime wrote:in response to that paycheck calculator: tax breaks for married people are such fucking bullshit

Seriously? It's called the marriage PENALTY. You pay way more tax as a married couple than you do as 2 single people. The second income is taxed at the heigher tax rates.

Look at Obama's tax cuts, two lawyers will be "wealthy" and get no tax cut ("soak the rich"). Hey it's a lot of money and a lawyer couple is blessed. But they likely will be paying 25-30,000 a year in student loan repayments AND more income tax. "Tax equity"- I don't think so....

Anonymous User wrote:

mountaintime wrote:in response to that paycheck calculator: tax breaks for married people are such fucking bullshit

Seriously? It's called the marriage PENALTY. You pay way more tax as a married couple than you do as 2 single people. The second income is taxed at the heigher tax rates.

Look at Obama's tax cuts, two lawyers will be "wealthy" and get no tax cut ("soak the rich"). Hey it's a lot of money and a lawyer couple is blessed. But they likely will be paying 25-30,000 a year in student loan repayments AND more income tax. "Tax equity"- I don't think so....

Highjackers, all.

Anonymous User wrote:

mountaintime wrote:in response to that paycheck calculator: tax breaks for married people are such fucking bullshit

Seriously? It's called the marriage PENALTY. You pay way more tax as a married couple than you do as 2 single people. The second income is taxed at the heigher tax rates.

Look at Obama's tax cuts, two lawyers will be "wealthy" and get no tax cut ("soak the rich"). Hey it's a lot of money and a lawyer couple is blessed. But they likely will be paying 25-30,000 a year in student loan repayments AND more income tax. "Tax equity"- I don't think so....

1) Why so anonymous?

2) The legal employment forum isn't for arguing politics, if you want to have a discussion of the politics of tax law, then go start a thread in the lounge.

please help me understand this. So even though the first income gets greatly reduced taxes, the second income is taxed more? I had always heard that married people pay less in the taxes, and then when I entered info into this link with a $125k income once as single and once as married, the married person had a significantly higher take-home pay.

mountaintime wrote:please help me understand this. So even though the first income gets greatly reduced taxes, the second income is taxed more? I had always heard that married people pay less in the taxes, and then when I entered info into this link with a $125k income once as single and once as married, the married person had a significantly higher take-home pay.

If you marry another high paid lawyer you get kind of fucked if you file together. However if you marry a girl who is a waitress and makes 10K a year, you make out. It has to do with the marginal tax rate system we have.

You have to keep in mind that Chicago has the highest sales taxes in the country. So even though there is no city income tax, you are paying the equivalent of maybe an extra 2-3% income tax in sales tax vs. an area with the standard 6%-ish sales tax.

And yeah, I think that's right about the marriage tax benefit/penalty. Basically, the government is subsidizing you to get a trophy wife/husband. Not the most intelligent thing IMO but it's kind of an inherent consequence of combining joint filing with progressive marginal taxes.

So, if in Illinois... marry poor for the money?

Anonymous User wrote:So, if in Illinois... marry poor for the money?

Or rather, in the entire country, marrying poor won't cost you as much as you might think it would

Better yet, don't get married and keep all the dough to yourself!

BunkMoreland wrote:Better yet, don't get married and keep all the dough to yourself!

but then you don't get the tax break

Anonymous User wrote:You have to keep in mind that Chicago has the highest sales taxes in the country. So even though there is no city income tax, you are paying the equivalent of maybe an extra 2-3% income tax in sales tax vs. an area with the standard 6%-ish sales tax.

And yeah, I think that's right about the marriage tax benefit/penalty. Basically, the government is subsidizing you to get a trophy wife/husband. Not the most intelligent thing IMO but it's kind of an inherent consequence of combining joint filing with progressive marginal taxes.

the system makes perfect sense. Lots of studies show that children benefit from having one parent or guardian stay at home and dedicate most of their time to raising the child. This gives an incentive to do this and makes it more feasible instead of having both parents/guardians work. The system, however, should be fixed so that people without kids don't get the break if one of them is just lazy. Also, because the focus should be on kids, it should make no difference if the couple is gay or straight, it should just matter whether they have kids.