porcupine wrote:- how do you get the negative federal tax rate?
- how did you manage to avoid paying into Social Security?
96% of workers have SS, 4% don't. Their employer must have a compulsory alternative that serves the same purpose, either a DB (pension) or DC (401a plan). See here for 401(a) (money purchase plan)
http://thefinancebuff.com/retirement-pl ... imple.html
The question is, are the contributions counted as part of savings (I counted my 401a contributions) and I think SS contributions should be counted, as long as the convention is clear.
Negative federal tax rates come from
Refundable Tax Credits as opposed to
Non-Refundable Tax Credits
http://thefinancebuff.com/refundable-an ... harts.html
(To get to that level from high 5 figure salary: take salary minus cafeteria plan (section 125) items (health ins, FSA (or HSA), retirement contributions e.g. 401a, 403b, 457b), maybe trad IRA contributions, then exemptions and standard deduction. Then there's retirement savers credit, child tax credit, earned income credit. The last two are
refundable credits meaning you can receive them beyond the point of just zeroing out your taxes.)