who is making $50,000 a year.

Let's figure out what your actual take-home pay

would be after paying federal income taxes,

and then in a future video,

we can also think about

what your state income taxes might be

if you're in a state that has income taxes.

So the first thing we need to think about

is what is our taxable income?

This $50,000, which is what you kind of

think your salary is,

this is your gross income,

and to get your taxable income,

we have to think about things

like exemptions and deductions.

I'm not going to go into a bunch of depth

right over here,

but if we just assume that you are a very

plain vanilla tax filer,

you're just going to take the standard deduction,

and you don't have a bunch of, you know,

donations to charity or whatever else,

or a mortgage, interest,

or whatever else you might want to deduct.

You would take the standard deduction,

and then if you're just an individual,

you're only taking ownership for yourself,

only responsibility for yourself,

you get to have the personal exemption.

If you have a spouse, if you have kids,

you might have larger exemption right over here.

The key about the deduction and the exemption

is these aren't deducted from your taxes.

These reduce your taxable income,

so you started at a gross income of $50,000.

Let's subtract out 6,100 for the standard deduction

and then 3,900 for the personal exemption,

and so your taxable income,

at the federal level,

is going to be 50,000 minus this stuff,

so this stuff adds up to $10,000 of deductions

and exemptions,

so your taxable income is $40,000.

Now, from this $40,000,

we can figure out how much you pay

in federal income taxes.

Right over here, I've done part of

the current federal tax brackets.

These change over time,

so the real basic idea for this video

is to get the idea of how these brackets work.

These brackets might change from year to year,

and many people say, "Okay, $40,000.

"It falls into this bracket right over here,

"and this bracket's at 25%,

"so the federal income tax must be 25%

"of the $40,000."

That is not how a tax bracket works.

The way it works is you pay 10% on the first 8,925,

then 15% on the increment up to 36,250,

and then 25% on the amount that is above 36,250.

So let's calculate what that is.

Get the calculator out.

We're going to pay 10% of the first 8,925,

8,925.

I have trouble pressing buttons on this calculator.

And then to that, we're going to pay 15%

on the next increment up to 36,250,

so that increment is 36,250 minus 8,925.

Once again, I have trouble typing in a 5 there.

And then, I'm going to pay 25% on the increment,

on the increment above 36,250,

so our taxable income is 40,000,

so it's 40,000 minus 36,250.

And, let's see.

Did I type that in right?

Yup, that looks pretty right,

and I get 5,92-,

I'll just round, $5,929.

So this gets us to $5,929 of just straight up,

what I'll just call straight up federal,

federal income tax.

Let me put that here. This is federal income tax.

Now, we aren't done at the federal level.

You also have what's often called the FICA tax,

or your share of the FICA tax.

This stands for the federal insurance,

Federal Insurance Contributions Act, FICA,

and this is essentially what you pay in

into social security and Medicare.

Right over here, although "emp" could be

an employer or employee,

so let me make this clear,

this is the employee's share of FICA,

which you pay 6.2% for social security,

1.45%, and you don't take into account deductions

or exemptions,

so you're going to pay it on the original $50,000,

so let's calculate what that's going to be.

So it's 50,000 times,

and you're going to pay 0.062,

6.2% for social security,

and then you're going to pay another 1.45%,

1.45% for Medicare,

and then that gives you your FICA tax.

It's $3,825,

so $,3825 in your share of FICA taxes,

and I keep talking about your share of FICA taxes.

Your employer will also separately,

this is the part that gets taken out of your,

out of your salary.

Your employer will also pay another 3,825

that you will never see.

So this is essentially half of the FICA taxes

that will go to the government

due to the fact that

you are working for your employer.

But now we have all of the taxes

that you are going to pay,

or all of the things

that are going to come out of your,

out of your payroll,

and so we can add those two things up.

We have the 3,825 plus the $5,929

gets us to 9,754.

9,754 in total federal things

that are taken out of your paycheck,

and so your take-home pay is going to be

$50,000 minus this right over here,

so that's going to be 50,000 minus 9,754,

54,

it gets us to 40,246,

so 40,246 is what you are left with

if we just take into account the federal things,

the taxes and the FICA tax

that are taken out of your pay,

out of your paystub, essentially.

Now, if you are in a state

that does not have state income taxes,

and a city that does not have local income taxes,

you're done.

This would be your take-home pay.

In the next video,

we'll think about how much more

will be taken out of your,

out of your pay if you are in a state

that has state income taxes.