Tax Hikes over $250K: End of the Upper Middle Class?
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Tax Hikes over $250K: End of the Upper Middle Class?

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It’s no surprise that working couples in big cities are struggling to raise children while paying off mortgages and student debt.  What is surprising is that they’re lumped in with the so-called “wealthy” if they jointly earn $250,000 a year. 

The fiscal cliff has added a new sense of urgency to the tax hikes that President Obama plans to impose on America’s wealthiest citizens. Obama starts the meter at $250,000, and it goes up from there.  The tax increases on high-income earners would deliver about $42 billion in 2013. They would create a small 0.1 percent drag on GDP, according to CBO, but their real cost might be much steeper.

Those tax increases aren’t the only ones that would kick in next year. In California, new tax propositions will create four new brackets for earners making $250,000 or more. Those taxpayers will see their state income taxes jump between 10.6 percent and 32.2 percent, depending on which of the four brackets they fall into. Other states in fiscal straits could follow suit, and Republicans among others worry that soaking the rich could weigh on consumer spending and leave the entire economy underwater.

Discretionary consumer spending is the engine that drives the U.S. economy.  And high-income earners drive it more than middle and low-income earners.  Gallup’s daily tracking of consumer spending showed a dip last month among upper-income consumers—an average of $116 per day, down from $126 in September.  If that dip continues into the holiday buying season, the economy could have a setback.


THE $250,000 CONUNDRUM
By most measures, a $250,000 household income is substantial. It is five times the national average, and just 2.9 percent of couples earn that much or more. “For the average person in this country, a $250,000 household income is an unattainably high annual sum — they’ll never see it,” says Roberton Williams, an analyst at the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.

$250,000 is a lot of money -- especially if you live in, say Peoria, Illinois.  But if you live in or around New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago or Dallas, you’re not rich—you’re simply what’s known as “upper middle class.” It all comes down to cost of living, a metric that is not considered when the Census Bureau of the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the mean earnings of working Americans. 

The cost of living in New York, for example, is 105.7 percent higher than living in Peoria, according to Salary.com. New York employers make up some of that difference by typically paying 29.9 percent more than employers in Peoria for the same job with the same type of company. 


 

MAKING ENDS MEET
Two years ago, The Fiscal Times asked BDO USA, a national tax accounting firm, to compute the total state, local and federal tax burden of a hypothetical two-career couple with two kids, earning $250,000. To factor in varying state and local taxes, as well as drastically different costs of living, BDO placed the couple in seven different locales around the country with top-notch public school districts, using national government data on spending.  The text below was written by Karen Hube, a Fiscal Times contributor.

The analysis assumes that this hypothetical couple – let’s call them Mr. and Mrs. Jones – are each on the payroll of companies, with professional positions. They take advantage of all tax benefits available to them, such as pretax contributions to 401(k) plans and medical, childcare and transportation flexible spending accounts. They have no credit card debt, but Mr. Jones racked up $40,208 in student loan debt in undergraduate and graduate school, and Mrs. Jones borrowed $22,650 to get her undergraduate degree (both amounts are equal to the national averages for their levels of education). They also have a car loan on one of two cars, and a mortgage for 80 percent of the value of a typical home in their communities for a family of four, which includes one toddler and one school-age child.

The bottom line: It’s not exactly easy street for our $250,000-a-year family, especially when they live in high-tax areas on either coast. Even with an additional $3,000 in investment income, they end up in the red — after taxes, saving for retirement and their children’s education, and a middle-of-the-road cost of living — in seven out of the eight communities in the analysis. The worst: Huntington, N.Y., and Glendale, Calif., followed by Washington, D.C., Bethesda, Md., Alexandria, Va., Naperville, Ill. and Pinecrest, Fla.  In Plano, Texas, the couple’s balance sheet would end up positive, but only by $4,963.

MEET THE JONESES
Consider the tax profile of the Joneses when based in Huntington, a suburb of New York City. Thanks to all of their smart pretax contributions and a fat deduction for mortgage interest and state and local taxes, the couple’s federal income tax is only $29,344. But what often goes overlooked is the toll taken by state and local taxes. In this case, it exceeds the federal income tax bill: $31,066.

State income taxes, taken alone, are just $10,557. But factor in the gas tax ($2,679), property tax ($15,222), phone service taxes and surcharges ($350) and sales tax ($2,258), and the picture looks far different. Their total tax bill, including the AMT and payroll taxes: $78,276.

“When most people think about taxes, they think first about federal income taxes, then maybe about sales taxes, but there are a lot of taxes out there,” says Mark Robyn, an economist with the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit tax research group in Washington, D.C. “It’s eye-opening to step back and take a look at the whole picture.”

WHAT $250,000 BUYS A FAMILY OF FOUR
The $250,000 threshold was first mentioned in a campaign speech by President Obama in 2008. “It’s an historical accident,” Williams says. “I don’t think there was any thought given to why $250,000 — it became a mantra.” Whether or not $250,000 represents affluence “depends a great deal upon where you live,” he says.

Consider, for example, the tab for the same assortment of ground beef, tuna, milk, eggs, margarine, potatoes, bananas, bread, orange juice, coffee, sugar and cereal: In Twin Falls, Idaho, $23.41. In New York City in December of 2010, you would have to shell out 72 percent more, $40.29, according to The Council for Community and Economic Research. That higher percentage carries across all expenditures, from child care costs to haircuts.

Of course, housing costs are one of the biggest variables. In Glendale, the Joneses can live reasonably well – but not extravagantly — in a three- or four-bedroom home valued around $750,000. In Twin Falls, you would need to spend about half as much on an equivalent home.

After covering taxes and only essential expenses for housing, groceries, child care, clothing, transportation — and their dog, the Joneses would still be in the red by $1,787 in Huntington. In Plano, Texas, they would have $27,556 to spare. Factor in common additional expenses for a working couple with two children – music lessons, day camp costs, and after school sports, entertainment, cleaning services, gifts, and a annual week-long vacation – the Joneses get deep in the red in Huntington to the tune of $23,178. In Plano, the best case scenario, they would still have money to spare, but just $4963.

Some of the expenses incurred by couples like the Joneses may seem lavish – such as $5,000 on a housecleaner, a $1,200 annual dry cleaning tab and $4,000 on kids’ activities. But when both parents are working, it is impossible for them to maintain the home, care for the kids and dress for their professional jobs without a big outlay.

And costs assumed by the Joneses could be significantly higher if their circumstances changed. For example, if they worked for themselves, they would have to foot the bill for all of their medical insurance premium, which averages $14,043. As it is, they pay 30 percent of the premium and their employers pay the rest.

Bottom line: For folks like the Joneses who live in high tax, high cost areas, who save for retirement and college, pay for child care to enable two incomes, and pay higher prices for housing in top school districts ─ $250,000 does not a rich family make.
Huntington,
NY
Pinecrest,
FL
Plano,
TX
Naperville,
Il
Glendale,
CA
Bethesda,
MD
Alexandria,
VA
Earned Income250,000 250,000 250,000 250,000 250,000 250,000 250,000
Unearned Income 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000
TAXES
Federal income 29,344 31,768 34,317 33,071 30,233 30,694 30,197
Alternative Minimum Tax2,710 - - 377 1,384 - -
Social Security/
Medicare
15,156 15,400 15,473 15,325 15,374 15,398 15,324
State Income10,557 - - 5,215 11,670 7,628 8,881
Property15,222 10,946 11,140 10,508 8,957 6,714 6,264
Sales 2,258 1,833 2,160 1,898 2,160 1,571 1,309
Gas2,679 1,324 1,656 1,596 1,555 1,704 1,545
Phone Service350 350 350 350 350 350 350
Health Care
Medical Insurance Premiums
(30% of total cost)
4,213 4,213 4,213 4,213 4,213 4,213 4,213
Out of Pocket Medical*5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000
Dental costs4,069 4,069 4,069 4,069 4,069 4,069 4,069
Child Care
- Day care and Babysitting *15,000 15,000 15,000 15,000 15,000 15,000 15,000
- After School Activities/Camp4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000
Housing
Mortgage interest and principal payments36,055 36,055 24,036 24,683 36,055 36,055 36,055
Property Insurance676 1,016 957 647 676 639 553
Maintenance5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000
Cleaning5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000
Two cars*
Insurance2,926 2,906 2,926 3,358 3,548 3,100 2,466
Car Loan Payments 7,596 7,536 7,596 7,536 7,764 7,404 7,332
Gas 5,721 6,804 5,844 6,804 7,085 6,167 6,022
Maintenance1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000
Parking Fees5,328 1,320 780 3,468 2,220 3,180 3,180
Utilities
Gas and electricity 5,280 5,280 5,280 5,280 5,280 5,280 5,280
Phone, cable, internet 2,400 2,400 2,400 2,400 2,400 2,400 2,400
Water612 612 612 612 612 612 612
Food and staples
Food and household supplies13,659 13,659 13,659 13,659 13,659 13,659 13,659
Takeout meals
@ $25/ week
1,250 1,250 1,250 1,250 1,250 1,250 1,250
Work Lunches
@ $10 each
5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000
Clothes
Clothes 2,955 2,955 2,955 2,955 2,955 2,955 2,955
Dry Cleaning 1,200 1,200 1,200 1,200 1,200 1,200 1,200
Student Loans6,000 6,000 6,000 6,000 6,000 6,000 6,000
Leisure
Travel (1 family trip)4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000 4,000
Eating out2,400 2,400 2,400 2,400 2,400 2,400 2,400
Gifts, holidays, family celebrations3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000
Entertainment
(movies, sports events, etc.)
2,693 2,693 2,693 2,693 2,693 2,693 2,693
Entertaining at home 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500
Dog1,571 1,571 1,571 1,571 1,571 1,571 1,571
Out-of-pocket expenses3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000
Savings--- - -- -
College fund8,000 8,000 8,000 8,000 8,000 8,000 8,000
Retirement funds33,000 33,000 33,000 33,000 33,000 33,000 33,000
Total Expenses 277,380 258,060 248,037 255,638 269,833 261,406 260,280
BOTTOM LINE
(with earned income only)
(27,380)(8,060)1,963 (5,638)(19,833)(11,406)(10,280)
BOTTOM LINE
(with investment income too)
(24,380)(5,060)4,963(2,638)(16,833)(8,406)(7,280)
*These line items were partially paid out of flex accounts
Footnotes: BDO Seidman, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Council for Community and Economic Research, CTIA-The Wireless Association, MyWireless.org, Consumer Reports, Leakbird.com, American Pet Products Association, Kaiser Family Foundation

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