• w3dd1e@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    63
    ·
    15 hours ago

    This is the problem. My partner doesn’t want to work OT because he thinks it will cost him more in taxes. I explain why that’s not exactly true, but I can tell he’s not interested. Financial Literacy in the US is abysmal.

    • sloppychops@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      10 hours ago

      This is not a US specific issue, tbh. I’ve heard this weird belief repeated by all sorts of people.

      • w3dd1e@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        7 hours ago

        You’re absolutely right. I cant speak for anyone else, as I don’t live there but I highly doubt the US is an exception.

        Rather than being mad at each other, I want to make sure we hold the right people accountable! Governments, corporations, billionaires etc.

        It’s a form of oppression.

      • dan@upvote.au
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 hours ago

        I’ve heard it in Australia too, which has the same tax bracket system as the USA. I think the fact that this stuff isn’t taught in school is a major issue.

      • w3dd1e@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        7 hours ago

        Nah. He’s not an idiot. But he is impatient. He doesn’t handle paperwork or anything involving patience well. (ADHD)

        I also think taxes in the US are intentionally over complicated and confusing. I don’t struggle with things like that but I can empathize with people who do.

        • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          4 hours ago

          have you considered asking him why he even thinks that in the first place? You’ve literally put him into a spot where he’s too stupid to even care about whether or not that response is logical or makes sense.

          If he just doesn’t want to work overtime that’s fine, a lot of people don’t, why would he justify it with stupid tax logic that he evidently must know is stupid? Seems like cope to me.

          You cannot simultaneously “be smart” and then “be stupid” you are either stupid about something, or not. It’s one of the two. I’m sure he’s a pretty generally smart guy, most people are, but either it’s an excuse he uses because he doesnt want to work overtime, or he’s literally uneducated (and therefore stupid) about taxes, and chooses not to be educated about it, even though it would be financially beneficial to him, because that’s literally how money works. (which would also make him pretty objectively stupid in that case) again, he may not care at all, but then why wouldn’t he just be upfront about not caring?

        • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          6 hours ago

          Strictly speaking the taxes in the US are not that complicated, but the credits, deductions and what not are. Still Tomato Tomato.

    • arrow74@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      13 hours ago

      Oddly enough it kinda does. OT can make you pay out more taxes on that one check since withholdings are calculated by check. Basically the government/payroll system thinks you’re going to be making that every week so more taxes will be taken out.

      In reality this only effects the size of your tax bill or return at the end of the year.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        9 hours ago

        That’s what people see and exactly why they think they got kicked up a whole tax bracket.

        • jj4211@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          8 hours ago

          The whole notion of “kicked up a tax bracket” is also a misleading thing. Only a piece of your income goes into the “new bracket”, all pay under the new bracket is taxed as they would have been used to.

      • YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        6 minutes ago

        Nah. There’s good people here and even the people who voted for this deserve to have their needs met, many of then are only personally responsible for a tiny fraction of the immense harm caused by the systems of power. And they may not have caused any harm if they lived in a place where people are always taken care of as well as is reasonably possible. there is immense pressure to shed empathy and embrace individualism and forego the many benefits of community such as efficient and effective collaboration, for example to prevent a disease from spreading or at least reducing the harm it causes. As many of us can see, especially obviously in the US, the goal and function of the system isn’t actually to stop causing harm in the first place, or even reduce the harm that must be caused for your society to function, the cruelty is often very much the point. Non-absolutely essential needs are less and less profitable to meet the less common it is to have the need, and the amount of wealth that can be extracted from the people with whatever need is the only thing that really determines what gets things done, and subjugation and not giving folks a chance to think critically and question their circumstances by completely overwhelming them with horrible information (including dis- or misinformation) about the world and making them think they’re threatened by whoever is opposing efforts to make line go up. Most folks don’t stand a chance without direct intervention and time spent with someone directly affected by the system in an obvious way, including possibly the person themselves.

        At the very least I owe it to my family to stay and be as helpful as possible to the people who have supported me and hopefully others who don’t deserve what’s coming if a major effort of community organization doesn’t happen

      • underwire212@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        7 hours ago

        We all have our weaknesses and faults. No need to dismiss every relationship due to imperfections.

      • w3dd1e@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        7 hours ago

        Nah. He’s not a bad person or a dummy. He just gets frustrated by bureaucracy and doesn’t have the patience I have.

        • recall519@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 hours ago

          It’s not the fear of bureaucracy that is concerning, it’s the lack of interest to listen to your sound advice on a relatively simple topic.