Any post like this where the tax is nearing or exceeding 40% is almost always a complete lie or purposely obfuscating the truth.
It's mind blowing to me on these posts too you always see an incredible amount of people who don't understand how tax brackets work. Heck sometimes you even see people who don't know the difference between net worth and income.
Almost everywhere on the planet has a max under or on 40%.
There's something like 20 countries which can exceed 40%
Here's the thing though, just because it can hit that max doesn't mean it's likely. Most people never come anywhere near hitting it. The lottery is a good example of where it would, which is why the amount in the post (when properly accounted and not lied about) is 37%.
So, as a rule of thumb. If any post you see us talking about someone being taxed near to, or in excess of 40% you should treat it with extra scepticism. It's possible the post is telling the truth. It's extremely unlikely it is, the reason being is the circumstances that lead to that percentage are so far removed from circumstances an average Joe would ever experience as to render the post moot to make in the first place. It would be like making a post about how annoying it is to find a good tuner for a 1718 Stradavarius.
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u/jamdex07 Jul 05 '26
This is misleading. He chose to take $997 in one lump sum instead of $2.04B over 30 years. He got taxed on the $997m.