I didn't see any debate here Sol. Just people stating how many dollars exited there hands in the here and now. Don't try and foam the thread.
Now, on to the thread....I'd have to look up numbers if I felt like being precise, but easily identifiable taxes (Fed income, social security, medicare / medicaid, Washington property tax, etc - things I have HARD numbers on):
Around 30 grand, in round numbers. Note that this does NOT include the part (supposedly) paid by the employer for SS / Medi. Add a shit ton more for that. (Note - won't break it down since that's TMI for a public forum - quite frankly, I'm shocked those above are posting such details).
Not included are use / consumption taxes such as gas, liquor, excise, impost duties, car tabs, sales, etc. as these are extremely difficult for an individual to accurately tabulate and are highly variable from year to year and in particular circumstances.
An example is sales taxes are low if you mostly buy untaxed items like unprepared food (flour, crackers, veggies, cooking oil, spices, bread, eggs, milk, butter, meat, etc), which is untaxed in Washington (prepared foods like restaurant meals however ARE taxed - so buy the bread, meat and mustard yourself, untaxed, to make the sandwich, or pay tax if you buy a sandwich), but you get raked over the coals if you buy liquor which has a per liter liquor tax AND you pay regular sales tax as well, or buy any big ticket items - computer, car, etc where the taxed value is high. An even worse way to get screwed on the taxes, although you only directly pay the sales tax, is to buy booze out - they pay the liquor tax straight, but you pay the sales tax on their marked up prices, so it's about 3x more sales tax than buying from a grocery and drinking at home.
More generically, here's a quirk of leading a generally frugal life while being highly productive (e.g. well paid) - easily identified taxes (as noted above) are my single biggest expense. I pay more in taxes than literally for anything else. More than my mortgage (used) to be, more than the cost of my health care, more than food, clothing, utilities, transportation, vacations, etc. Hell....given what I spend, its a close race between what I spend on taxes and EVERYTHING else, combined. So it's roughly $1 for the fine folks in DC, Olympia and Everett (US, State and County seats) to spend, and about 75 cents to a buck for me to decide how to spend on myself.
Once I punch out of the rat race and FIRE in the not too distant future, I look forward to dumping my single biggest expense - the vast majority of my taxes.
This debate is always kind of silly. Don't forget your gas taxes and utility taxes as separate from your sales taxes, and those taxes you pay indirectly by buying goods from companies that pay corporate taxes, and the foreign taxes levied on raw materials those companies import. And your property taxes go to your county, which then pays state taxes out of them, but some is used to pay their employees who must then pay federal income taxes out of your dollars. And remember to deduct your state income or sales taxes from your federal tax liability, even though the rates aren't proportional, and subtract off the federal taxes you pay that will come back to you as SS payments. And your federal taxes pay salaries for federal employees who then have to pay FICA taxes back to their employer to fund employee's pension and social security payments which will also incur federal income taxes back to their employer.
We pay taxes every time a dollar changes hands. It's almost too easy to double or triple count some of them. I can make my tax rate look like 0% or 50% of my income without even breaking a sweat.
