Re: Remember "Bit-Slice" Chips ?

On Mon, 16 Dec 2024, rbowman wrote:

On Sun, 15 Dec 2024 23:09:13 +0100, D wrote:
>

Ahh... the land of the free! Try 31% in sweden or around 20% where I am
now. Oh, and the 31% has a cap, so you only get part of that to fund
your own retirement. The rest goes to happy arabians!

>
There is a yearly maximum for the SS tax, which gets raised frequently. It
was nice to max out and have a few weeks without the deduction at the end
of the year. The current cap is $168,600 so I would guess the majority of
the workers don't see those bonus weeks anymore.

Jesus! I thought it was only in sweden. Well, as you say it's 168k, so I imagine that the majority of people in the US never hit the cap.

Of course your benefits are taxed. Some states don't tax SS benefits but
this one does so both the Feds and the state have their hands out. Then if
you have an IRA or other retirement account there is a required minimum
distribution yearly which is taxed when you hit 73.

Of course it is taxed! ;) And your private retirement savings are taxed as well, so a nice double tax. First the salary, and then you save it, and it is of course taxed again at withdrawal.

Between the assorted taxes it isn't as bad as Sweden but they're working
on it. Somebody has to buy tanks for the Ukraine.

It's a jungle. 10 years ago, the then CEO of telia (big telco in sweden) discovered that if he moved to portugal he could get his retirement tax free. He did! There was much gnashing of teeth, and the loop hole was closed.
If you're content to wait until you are at least 55 to withdraw money, you can start a retirement foundation. The gross assets are taxed with a flat tax of 0.3% or so every year, regardless of if the assets shrink or grow. And in return you can withdraw your retirement savings for free. This is not very well known, and I have never heard of a company that offers this.