Total tax paid
$8,000
Did you know your employer also pays tax on your salary? It costs the employer $2,003 to pay you $26,036. In other words, every time you spend $10 of your hard-earned money, $3.07 goes to the government.
Real tax rate
28.5%
So, with you and the employer both paying tax, what used to be a 23% tax rate now rises to 28.5%, meaning your real tax rate is actually 5.5% higher than what it seemed at first.