Total tax paid
$4,575
Did you know your employer also pays tax on your salary? It costs the employer $1,319 to pay you $18,000. In other words, every time you spend $10 of your hard-earned money, $2.54 goes to the government.
Real tax rate
23.7%
So, with you and the employer both paying tax, what used to be a 18.1% tax rate now rises to 23.7%, meaning your real tax rate is actually 5.6% higher than what it seemed at first.