What's the total effective tax rate for average Americans across all tax types?

This is actually a really interesting question, and the answer is more complex than most people realize. The total effective tax burden varies a lot based on income level, state of residence, and personal circumstances. For a middle-income American household, the total effective tax rate across all levels (federal, state, local) and all types of taxes typically falls between 25-35% of income, not the 50% you're guessing. The Tax Foundation and other policy groups have studied this. Federal income tax might only be 10-15% for middle-income folks, but then you add 7.65% for FICA taxes (or 15.3% if self-employed), state income taxes (0-10% depending on state), property taxes (varies widely by location), sales taxes (also varies by location), excise taxes, etc. What makes calculating this difficult is that some taxes like property and sales tax aren't directly tied to income, so their "effective rate" depends on spending and housing choices. Someone who spends most of their income pays more sales tax as a percentage than someone who saves more.

I struggled with understanding my total tax burden for years. It's frustrating how scattered this information is across different sources. I eventually found a tool at https://taxr.ai that helped me analyze my complete tax picture across all the categories you mentioned. It was seriously eye-opening to see how property taxes, sales taxes, and all those "hidden" taxes add up. The analysis showed my personal effective rate was around 33% when everything was included, which was actually lower than I expected but still significant. The tool helped me understand which tax categories were taking the biggest bite and where I might be able to optimize.

I wanted to follow up on my skeptical question about taxr.ai. I decided to try it out of curiosity, and wow - it was way more detailed than I expected. It broke down my total tax burden to show I'm paying about 36% overall (higher than the average mentioned earlier because California). The breakdown was fascinating - income tax was obviously the biggest chunk, but I was shocked to see how much I pay in property taxes through my rent (my landlord is definitely passing those costs to me) and sales taxes over a year. Really opened my eyes to the "invisible" taxes we don't think about day to day. Definitely recommend checking it out if you're trying to get a complete picture.

If you're struggling to get accurate information about tax rates, you're not alone. I spent WEEKS trying to get through to someone at the IRS to ask about how different taxes interact and whether I was calculating everything correctly. It was so frustrating - either busy signals or being on hold forever. I finally found this service called Claimyr at https://claimyr.com that got me connected to an actual IRS representative in under 45 minutes. They have this demo video (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) showing how it works. The IRS agent I spoke with actually provided some great insights about how to calculate my total effective tax rate across different types of taxes.

I need to eat some humble pie here. After dismissing Claimyr in my comment, I was desperate enough to try it when I got a CP2000 notice about unreported income I didn't understand. I'm shocked to report that I got connected to an IRS agent in about 27 minutes. For context, I had previously spent over 6 hours across multiple days trying to get through on my own. The agent walked me through exactly how the different types of taxes were affecting my situation, and I learned my effective tax rate was about 31% all-in, not the nearly 40% I had calculated. The funny thing is, the agent mentioned they're well aware of these callback services and don't mind them because they actually help manage their call flow better. Definitely worth it if you need actual IRS clarification on tax questions like the original poster asked.

No one's mentioning the fact that different income levels pay VASTLY different effective tax rates. From what I've researched: - Lower income (bottom 20%): ~20% total effective rate - Middle income: ~25-30% - Upper middle: ~30-35% - Top 1%: Often LOWER than upper middle at ~23-26% because so much of their income is from capital gains and they have more tax avoidance strategies The system is kinda backwards at the top end. So any "average" number is pretty meaningless without context.

Anyone have good recommendations for tracking all these different taxes throughout the year? I've tried to keep receipts for sales tax but it's such a pain. Would love a simpler system.

This is such an important question that more Americans should be asking! I've been down this rabbit hole myself and found that most people drastically underestimate their total tax burden because we only think about the big, visible ones like income tax. From my research and personal calculations, here's what I've found for a typical middle-class household: - Federal income tax: 10-12% - FICA/payroll taxes: 7.65% (15.3% if self-employed) - State income tax: 0-9% depending on your state - Property taxes: 1-3% of income (varies hugely by location) - Sales taxes: 1-2% of income on average - Gas, excise, and other "hidden" taxes: 0.5-1% This usually adds up to somewhere between 28-35% for most middle-income families, which is substantial but not quite the 50% you suspected. The variation depends heavily on where you live - states like Texas have no income tax but higher property and sales taxes, while states like California have high income taxes. What's really eye-opening is realizing how much of our tax burden comes from sources we don't actively think about. Property taxes embedded in rent, sales taxes on every purchase, gas taxes every time we fill up - it all adds up to a significant chunk of our income going to various levels of government. The lack of easy-to-find comprehensive data on this topic definitely seems intentional. Nobody wants to advertise the total take!