Total tax paid
$2,214
Did you know your employer also pays tax on your salary? It costs the employer $473 to pay you $8,500. In other words, every time you spend $10 of your hard-earned money, $2.60 goes to the government.
Real tax rate
24.7%
So, with you and the employer both paying tax, what used to be a 20.5% tax rate now rises to 24.7%, meaning your real tax rate is actually 4.2% higher than what it seemed at first.